The Rocky River is a beautiful small river that flows through western Chatham County before joining the Deep River (our sister river in the Upper Cape Fear watershed). It is one of the most biologically diverse streams in NC and is home to the endangered Cape Fear Shiner. It has long suffered from nutrient pollution from Siler City’s waste water treatment plant, and poultry processing wastewater, resulting in algae blooms and fish kills. Siler City has requested a change in their Wastewater Treatment plant permit that would allow the new poultry processing plant, Mountaire, to send their untreated wastewater to be treated at the public wastewater treatment plant. This permit currently has no limit of the amount of nitrogen that is discharged and has no way to treat nitrogen at the plant. The proposed permit would allow the wastewater treatment plant to discharge inadequately treated water in the waterways with no nitrogen limitation until 2023. A public hearing was held in Siler City last week with most speakers opposing the permit. The proposed change could have devastating effects on the Rocky River and the Cape Fear watershed. The public comment deadline has now been extended to Thursday January 31. You can submit comments to Mike Templeton at email@example.com.
Read more and see our talking points at http://hawriver.org/siler-