Have we damaged our rivers by removing debris?

Published 11:56 am Friday, August 1, 2025

We all cheered when the giant equipment waded into our rivers and began removing debris. This is good, we thought. But now there are worries that it all went too far.

I recall the time we hired a plumber to come to our house and unclog a kitchen drain. Nothing I tried worked, and we couldn’t sit back and wait to see if it would fix itself. The plumber used a powerful snake and what must have been some snake oil, because when the plug finally loosened his devil’s elixir splattered over the sink.

After the plumber left, we noticed the stainless steel rim of the sink drain no longer glistened when we wiped it down. In fact, it looked like pewter. The sparkle was gone forever. Now whenever we use the sink, it’s the first thing we notice.

These days some of the people who look at the Green and Broad rivers and their tributaries with a sense of how those streams fit into our greater ecosystem are voicing concern that the contractors using long-arm excavators, swamp buggies, front-end loaders and bulldozers may have gone too far and too deep.

Benji Jones, an environment reporter for Vox, interviewed dozens of federal, state and local people and walked along our rivers before reporting recently on the Western North Carolina cleanup from Helene. Many local specialists associated with our rivers told Jones the massive job was botched.

Hans Lohmeyer, the stewardship coordinator for Conserving Carolina, told Jones the contractors “just removed everything” from the rivers and banks because it resulted in more money in their pockets. Debris removal contractors are paid by volume, so the more they remove the more money they make. The Army Corps of Engineers told Jones it does not tolerate over-clearing of debris.

Many feel vast expanses of river banks left bare by the cleanup should be restored using native plants rather than heavy rocks or invasive plants.

Mountain True,  a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the environment and promoting healthy communities in Western North Carolina, is taking a much different approach in its local post-Helene cleanup efforts.

“We have gone into and along the banks of our streams and rivers removing harmful and polluting debris by the trailer loads. We are not using heavy equipment like the FEMA paid contractors. Most of the work is done by hand, with consideration given to the local environment,” said David Caldwell, the Broad Riverkeeper. “We are targeting specific locations and stretches of river that have been impacted the most.”  The state recognized Mountain True’s efforts and began providing some funding to implement an extensive cleanup and restoration plan over the next two years in 26 Western North Carolina counties.

Some say it’s impossible to have as many debris removal contractors as we’ve had working here and not see some damage. But to others, it’s a lot of damage to our ecosystem that we will have to live with long after the big machines are gone.

Larry McDermott is a local farmer/journalist. Reach him at hardscrabblehollow@gmail.com