New revenue stream for the Catawba Riverkeeper: a bar
The Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation moved into its new McAdenville HQ last month, which has allowed the non-profit to expand its water protection efforts
The following article appeared in the Oct. 21, 2022, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with original business and general news for Charlotte. Sign up for free:
Q&A: Catawba Riverkeeper Brandon Jones talks about the challenges facing the region’s water — and how selling beer supports his organization’s mission
The Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation’s new headquarters in McAdenville includes the River Room taproom, which includes indoor and outdoor seating and event space. The goal of the bar is to expose more people to the foundation and help raise funds to support water protection. (Photo courtesy of Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation)
By Lindsey Banks
When you first walk into the Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation’s new headquarters in McAdenville, the space that greets you might look more like a taproom than a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the Catawba-Wateree River Basin.
And technically, it is. The River Room offers a selection of locally crafted beer made with water from the Catawba River, and a rentable event space, which are both new revenue streams for the foundation. The beer selection includes brews from Legion Brewing, Birdsong Brewing and NoDa Brewing.
Behind the taproom is the foundation’s official headquarters. It’s complete with offices, a conference room, a water testing lab and a classroom so that the Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation can expand its operations of protecting the watershed and educating others.
The foundation and its 12 team members moved into their new digs in the former Pharr Yarns mill last month. Their previous office was in uptown Charlotte, but the organization wanted to be closer to the river, said Catawba Riverkeeper Brandon Jones.
Jones has been the riverkeeper for four years, and with the foundation for five years — he spent a year as the director of technical programs before being promoted to riverkeeper. He’s a Gaston County native with a master’s in earth science from UNC Charlotte. He received his bachelor’s degree in economics with a minor in environmental science from UNC Chapel Hill in 2010.
Brandon Jones has served as the Catawba Riverkeeper for four years. In his role, he protects and advocates for the creeks, rivers and lakes that make up the Catawba-Wateree River Basin. (Photo courtesy of Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation)
The Ledger sat down with Jones to learn about what the Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation is working on inside — and outside — of its new headquarters, including what being a riverkeeper means, why protecting the river basin is important in Mecklenburg County and the coolest spot in the basin to visit.
Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: Tell us about this new facility that you just moved into a month ago, and what was behind the idea to build a bar into the design?
This has been a long time coming, but we’re excited to be here in Christmastown, USA, in McAdenville. Wrapping up some of our litigation with Duke Energy [over coal ash cleanup], me coming to the role as riverkeeper and us getting a new executive director — we were really looking to get closer to the river. We really wanted to be a more on-the-wire organization, get out of the office and out of the courtroom and back into the field. We looked at several different locations on the water, and we were able to make some great contacts here in McAdenville with local redevelopers and get into this new building, the McAden Mill. It was a machine shop at one point, and so this redevelopment has allowed us to greatly expand our footprint. We have a real lab now, we can process samples much more efficiently, and we have a larger staff now that have dedicated space to work. We can get a lot more done.
The other interesting and different thing about this facility is we have a front-of-house bar. We are a bar. We sell beer. All of our beer comes from water pulled out of the Catawba River. We want people that don't just care about water quality and environmentalism to come by and still have a beer and talk about it. Even just by engaging with us here, they can still support the mission. All of our sales, both in merchandise and food and beverage, go back to supporting the water work that the protection team does. Things like taking samples and advocating for clean water. We're going to be open all through Christmas. People will be able to park, come in, have a beverage and walk through the lights.
Q: What is a riverkeeper, and what are your duties as the Catawba riverkeeper?
Riverkeepers are a part of the Waterkeeper Alliance, a large coalition of groups that really focus on water quality. We started with the Clean Water Act in the early 1970s. Every organization, whether they are a riverkeeper or baykeeper or lakekeeper, focuses on a specific hydrologic unit, and so in this case, we’re looking at the Catawba-Wateree River Basin. It’s not just the river, not just the lakes, but all the creeks and streams that feed into that.
Every riverkeeper organization is also different in what they focus on. For example, here in the Catawba River Basin, we look at stormwater a lot. We all seek to enforce the Clean Water Act and make sure that all of our waters are swimmable, fishable and drinkable.
Q: Can you explain the geography of the river basin in relation to Charlotte?
If you’re in uptown Charlotte, you’re probably in the Little Sugar Creek Greenway. If you’re in a parking lot at the Panthers’ stadium, you might run into Tiger Creek, or if you’re over further to the east side, you might be in the McAlpine Creek watershed. All of those are going to flow into Sugar Creek, which eventually goes across the state line and then goes into Catawba River just south of Lake Wylie. But our jurisdiction covers a much larger area: We’re looking at about 5,000 square miles, two states, 26 counties.
There are 11 total reservoirs in the basin, so you’ve got James, Rhodhiss, Hickory, Lookout Shoals, Norman, Mountain Island, Wylie, and then we’ve got this beautiful 26-mile free-flowing section, which a lot of people might have been tubing on. It passes past lands through Canal State Park down into Fishing Creek reservoir, the Great Falls area, which is two separate reservoirs, and then finally into Lake Wateree, the last reservoir in the chain.
Q: Why is the Catawba River Basin important to the Charlotte area?
Here in the Piedmont, we are completely dependent on surface water for both electricity and drinking water, and for waste disposal as well. Every city that you see in the Piedmont is pulling surface water, so here in Charlotte, we're getting our drinking water from Mountain Island Lake and Lake Norman. Those are the two primary drinking water reservoirs. That supports drinking water for about 2 million people.
In addition, most of our electricity is coming from the nuclear plants: the McGuire facility on Lake Norman and the Catawba station on Lake Wylie. We also have two active coal-fired power plants in the Charlotte region, the Marshall facility on Lake Norman and the Allen facility on Lake Wylie. We’re not only getting our electricity from the hydroelectric dams there; we’re also getting from the thermoelectric facilities that are either nuclear or coal-based.
Q: Charlotte is a growing city that’s constantly being developed. Construction runoff is responsible for some of the contaminants found in groundwater. Have you ever had any conflict with developers who might not be taking the necessary precautions?
Active construction is a major challenge. In our Piedmont soils, we have a lot of clay, and most of our construction guidelines are designed to trap 75 to 85% of the total disturbed earth. The problem is that 10 to 15%, and that’s going to be the small clay particles which don’t settle out in those retention basins that you see, that don’t get captured by the silt fence and other types of stormwater control measures.
The impact that has is, when you look at the creeks after rainstorms, they’re orange. It’s not all active construction. There’s also bank corrosion caused by legacy post-construction stormwater. But it’s a real challenge that we have. There are some technologies available out there, but they're expensive and it can be difficult to apply.
The other thing that we really advocate for is redevelopment. There are a lot of old strip malls and old mills that are trying to redevelop, and so by redeveloping and reusing the spaces, you’re not adding additional stormwater to the area, and you’re not having to disturb or cut down any more trees.
Q: What can Charlotteans do to protect and preserve the river?
The first one is vote. A lot of our issues that we talk about are dealt out as local issues. Your town, county elections — those have a huge impact on what happens through water. A lot of people will yell and scream at the EPA every four years about something, but most of the issues that are really going to matter to individuals are happening at a much closer level.
The second thing you can do is reduce consumption. There’s often the saying that “the solution to pollution is dilution.” That’s not exactly true in all cases, but in a lot of cases it is, so reducing both your electrical and water consumption can certainly help. You can also not add to that pollution. Things like picking up after your dog and making sure that you’re limiting your single-use plastics, and the ones that you do consume, that you make sure those get to a proper disposal facility, whether that’s recycling or a landfill.
Finally, you could become an advocate. You can talk about clean water, you can powerfully use those resources. You can volunteer for organizations like ours or any number of other local organizations that are focusing on restoration.
Q: How are the Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation and your protection efforts funded?
We are a 501(c)(3). We’re trying to make our funding as diverse as possible, with the selling revenue and having merchandise, things like that. We also do eco-tours. But right now about 60%, or the majority of our funding, comes from either grants, individual donations that average less than $50, and business contributions.
Q: What is your favorite spot on the river?
I gotta be careful to not give up any secret spots, and I certainly don’t want to make those spaces too crowded, but I think probably my favorite is Landsford Canal State Park [in Chester County, S.C., 45 minutes south of Charlotte], specifically during the spider lily bloom. There’s this one type of lily that only grows right across the fall line. It’s called the Rocky Shoals spider lily. The largest colony in the world is at Landsford Canal State Park.
For about two weeks in late May to early June, you can go out there and see these hundreds of thousands of four-foot lilies all blooming at the same time. You can paddle right through this amazing garden, and there's nothing like it. I highly recommend that trip.
Lindsey Banks is a staff reporter for The Ledger: lindsey@cltledger.com
➡️ You can listen 🎧 to Catawba Riverkeeper Brandon Jones’ 20-minute conversation with reporter Lindsey Banks — and other Charlotte-focused podcasts from The Charlotte Ledger, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast platforms. Search for “Charlotte Ledger.”
The full edition of the Oct. 21, 2022, Charlotte Ledger for paying members included the following articles:
The details on why some Matthews residents are organizing to oppose what they say is a “gargantuan” development plan by an I-485 interchange, with 666 homes and a grocery store.
The info on Bank of America’s changes to its return-to-office policy — one that explicitly says some workers can work from home 2 days a week.
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Contributing photographer/videographer: Kevin Young, The 5 and 2 Project