TVA grant to reduce Lake Junaluska litter
Jim Pearson removes the temporary yellow containment boom to make way for the new booms. Donated photo
A $4,400 grant from the Tennessee Valley Authority will help Haywood Waterways Association support community stream cleanups and Haywood County’s Adopt-a-Stream program. Much of the money will go toward purchasing a collection boom to reduce trash in Lake Junaluska.
“If we contain trash before it reaches the lake, we can reduce the amount of trash in the lake,” said Jim Pearson, a Lake Junaluska resident and frequent cleanup volunteer, “which would greatly reduce the workload required to clean the perimeter of the lake.”
In 1995, two trash booms were installed at the lower end of Richland Creek to capture trash before it entered the lake, but after many years of sun exposure and high-flow events, the booms succumbed to age. Friends of the Lake and the Junaluskans collected donations to replace one of them, but two are needed. The TVA grant will help fund that much-needed second boom. The structures can range in cost from a few thousand dollars to almost $10,000.
