Do what on your lawn? Wash your car!

Stream Restoration on Reedy River Tributary

Upstate Forever in Walnut Creek

Rain Garden at First Baptist Greenville

Greenville Journal: Restoring the Reedy

Q & Amy: Who Takes Care of the Reedy River?

Do It On Your Lawn

Washing your car on grass or gravel helps stop pollution from flowing into our waterways.

Your Carolina – Clearing up common misconceptions about the Reedy River

RRWQG 3rd “Big Tent” Meeting

This summer, don’t worry about what your neighbors will say. Just get outside and do it on your lawn.

June 6, 2016 by rrwqg

The purpose of the Cleveland Park stream restoration project is to perform ecological restoration activities while maintaining and enhancing the aesthetic qualities of Cleveland Park. The scope of work includes stabilizing severely eroding streambanks and reconnecting approximately 500 feet of a Reedy River tributary with its floodplain to promote water quality improvements in the area of the park between Woodland Way and Woodland Way Circle. [Read more…]

January 19, 2016 by rrwqg

Over the last four years, Upstate Forever has coordinated with landowners and farmers in Walnut Creek, a Reedy River subwatershed near Ware Shoals, to complete on-the-ground projects that improve local water quality such as fencing cattle out of streams, providing alternate water sources for farm animals, and replacing failing septic tanks. [Read more…]

November 6, 2015 by rrwqg

A rain garden was installed in Spring 2015 along the Reedy River near downtown Greenville by the Friends of the Reedy River (FoRR) in collaboration with a number of partners and supporters to demonstrate its use as a stormwater retrofit for an existing development site.

Rain Garden Fact Sheet (pdf) [Read more…]

October 27, 2015 by rrwqg

BY APRIL MORRIS – UPDATED OCTOBER 23, 2015
Source: Greenville Journal

One of the Upstate’s treasured rivers, the Reedy River, once was the power for numerous textile mills – and their dumping ground. The rushing water was said to have turned the shade of whatever dyes were coloring the mills’ cloth that day. After years of effort and cleanup, the river is now an attraction and an asset. There is still work to be done, however, say water quality advocates. To even further improve the Reedy’s health, partners ranging from the volunteer and conservation levels to the federal government have collaborated to form the Reedy River Water Quality Group (RRWQG). [Read more…]

September 30, 2015 by rrwqg

From the Greenville News 9/30/15

Q: Who is responsible for cleaning the Reedy River?

Amy in short: While there are some entities — of both the highly regulated and largely volunteer varieties — that work to maintain the Reedy, [Read more…]

Wash your car, that is…

All innuendoes aside, the health of the Reedy River is no joke. Like most great cities, Greenville owes much of its success to the natural resources that have drawn people here for centuries. The banks of the Reedy River have seen a transformation that is hard to imagine. As the landscape has changed, so have the sources of pollution. Historically, mills, textile plants, and other industries had a lot to do with the health of the Reedy. Today, however, it’s often down to the accumulation of our individual actions. Something as simple as washing your car on lawn or gravel can stop pollution from flowing into the Reedy.

Most soap contains phosphorus, which in abundance, can impair waterways and lead to nutrient pollution. According to the EPA, too many nutrients cause algae to grow faster than ecosystems can handle, harming water quality, habitats, food resources, and decreasing the oxygen that aquatic life needs to survive. These nutrients, together with the dirt and oil washed from cars, can flow into nearby ditches or storm drains that run directly into local rivers, lakes, and streams.

We need a clean Reedy to ensure that the Upstate has a healthy environment, economy, and community! Do it on your lawn for the Reedy.

Most car washing supplies contain chemicals that harm fish and water quality.
These chemicals, together with the dirt and oil washed from your car, flow into nearby storm drains which run directly into our waterways.
Washing your car on the lawn or on gravel will allow the soil to filter out pollutants.

A news article shared on Facebook a few weeks back generated a lot of comments about the Reedy River and its current state. Lynn and Shelby are here to clear up some common misconceptions and to tell us about a group that’s working to improve the Reedy.

« September 2018 »

Officials from more than 25 local governments, conservation groups and public utilities will be meeting on November 15, 2017 to discuss the future of the Reedy River at the third “Big Tent” event. [Read More…]