The Yadkin River finally has a face. It comes with a goatee.
At 6-5 and 200-plus pounds, Dean Naujoks looks more like a football linebacker than a citizen activist. But he is making an impression with regulators, municipalities, businesses and conservationists who have a stake in the river that runs through us.
Almost a year ago, Naujoks became the first Yadkin Riverkeeper.
Among the bigger issues Naujoks has tackled since then have been the federal relicensing efforts of Alcoa Power Generating Inc., the location of Fibrowatt poultry litter incinerators in the basin and, more recently, significant sewage overflows from the city of Thomasville.
In all instances, Naujoks has been a strident, non-compromising opponent to what he views as threats to the Yadkin River’s health and long-term vibrancy.
Not only is he a face for the river, but a conscience, too.
“I just feel like this is some of the most important work there is,” says the 40-year-old Naujoks , whose name is pronounced “Now-yucks.” He earlier this year won the Rivernetwork’s 2009 National River Hero Award.
Think of all the pressures placed on a river: Industrial discharges. Treatment plants. Dams and hydropower operations. Farms. Developments. Recreation.
Then think of all the symptoms we regularly observe telling us that things aren’t exactly right: The sediment. Advisories against eating fish. Algae blooms. Litter. Erosion. Dredging.
All rivers, Naujoks says, need a champion ó someone with training, skills and technical knowledge to be the citizens’ spokesperson when special interests try to exploit a public resource.
“You start realizing there’s no voice at the table for the river,” Naujoks says. “… Sure enough, you come in and you realize how much it is being compromised. Honestly, I kind of expected it.”
In North Carolina, the Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin is the second largest. It includes 5,862 stream miles, 22,988 lake acres and touches 21 counties, 93 municipalities and 7,221 square miles.
The Yadkin was too big of a river and represented too large of a watershed to not have a citizen watchdog. Naujoks says the Catawba River has had a riverkeeper for 12 years; the Neuse, 15 years; and Cape Fear, 10 years.
Yadkin Riverkeeper Inc. is a nonprofit group of about 200 members and part of the nationwide Waterkeeper Alliance.
The education, advocacy and action elements of the Riverkeeper mission often fall to Naujoks.
He and his wife, Kathy, and their 5-year-old daughter have settled in Winston-Salem, where only recently a Yadkin Riverkeeper Inc. office has opened on Third Street. Naujoks also would like to establish a presence in Salisbury.
He has one staff member, a part-time position. A generous donation is going to pay for a 17-foot Triumph patrol boat, which has yet to launch.
You might think a riverkeeper would be on the water all the time. It’s true, a physical presence on the water is important.
But Naujoks and other riverkeepers find they constantly have to be in front of decision-makers to speak for the river’s protection.
Naujoks’ tools include the media and working with state and local governments to improve water quality. He responds to citizen complaints. A Thomasville employee, for example, contacted Naujoks when he realized significant sewage spills were being under-reported and misrepresented.
Naujoks also spends time reviewing permits of industrial polluters, attending hearings, applying for grants, writing for a Web site and checking records of noncompliance among polluters.
His statewide Muddy Water Watch program trains citizens to identify and report sediment and stormwater runoff problems from construction sites. Naujoks says the river needs a citizenry committed to sustainable development and locally elected officials dedicated to the long-term health of the river.
“We do not have that political commitment right now,” he says. “That has to change.”
The Riverkeeper programs gain the bite with their bark from the federal Clean Water Act, which includes provisions for citizens to take legal action against polluters.
“Any citizen can do this,” Naujoks says.
When the law is on the side of citizens and their river, and that law is broken, Naujoks has no qualms about being outspoken on the Yadkin’s behalf.
“It just doesn’t bother me anymore,” he says of taking an adversarial role. “Who else is going to do it?”
Naujoks grew up the oldest of three children in Milford, Pa., in a county with one traffic light. Milford sits next to the Upper Delaware River, dividing Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
It was a great area for hunting and fishing. The start of deer season has always been a school holiday in that part of Pennsylvania.
Naujoks’ earliest memories of being on water involve trout fishing with his father and grandfather.
“I, like many others, took clean water for granted,” Naujoks says. “I assumed it was there and it would all work out.”
The family moved south to the Raleigh area in 1987. At 22, Naujoks started working for the N.C. Wildlife Federation after going to school part-time at N.C. State.
Naujoks says his work with the nonprofit wildlife group from 1991-99 gave his life more focus as he participated in many statewide grass-roots efforts. By age 29, he had returned to N.C. State full-time, creating and graduating with a degree in environmental policy and sustainable development.
Not wanting to be a “policy wonk,” Naujoks became the first Upper Neuse Riverkeeper in 2001. He led many fights, but one of his biggest battles came against the city of Raleigh.
Naujoks worked with whistleblowers to uncover more than 20 environmental and labor law violations. It led Raleigh to invest some $40 million in sewage plant upgrades.
One of Naujoks’ letters of recommendation for the Yadkin riverkeeper job came from the Raleigh mayor, though the city was once his adversary.
“You actually have to drive the change,” Naujoks says of his role.
As for putting pressure today on the city of Thomasville to replace its aging sewer lines, “they’ll thank us in the end,” Naujoks predicts.
He also has been an outspoken opponent of Alcoa’s efforts to obtain another long-term federal license to operate the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project. He strongly supports the concept of a state trust to take over the dams, reservoirs and power-generating facilities.
“Alcoa gets rich off the river, but it has compromised this river significantly, and it’s not right,” Naujoks says.
Everything is not doom and gloom for the Yadkin basin, Naujoks stresses. The river’s headwaters are in pretty good shape, and he speaks proudly, for example, of the Roaring, Mitchell and Uwharrie rivers.
But some sections of the river and waters that feed the Yadkin are in bad shape, and Naujoks says he would give them an “F” grade in water quality. Man-made dams also cause problems, and Naujoks says implementing a necessary nutrient reduction strategy to improve High Rock Lake will be expensive.
Up and down the river basin, treatment plants now operating in compliance need to go well beyond what regulators require “if this river is to have a chance,” Naujoks says.
Naujoks says the Yadkin needed the Riverkeeper program more than him specifically. When he’s long gone, the program will still be in place, providing a face and conscience for the river.
“We’re not going away,” he says.