Good intentions gone wrong: Maconians sound alarm on excessive debris removal
Heaby machinery removes debris in the Little Tennessee River. Jason Love photo
By this point, more than six months after Hurricane Helene barreled through Western North Carolina, it’s a common sight. Heavy machinery moving in and around waterways, working to remove debris that choked rivers and streams during extreme flooding caused by the storm.
Not only does debris removal help clear waterways of potentially hazardous material, but it also reduces the risk of dangerous flood events in the future. It’s a key part of the recovery process.
But as work gets underway Macon County, some are worried that the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the companies they have contracted for the work are going too far, removing debris that predated Helene and had become part of the ecosystem, as well as excess amounts of vegetation from riparian zones and in some cases, live trees.
“We’re not against woody debris removal in targeted areas, we can see how that can be helpful in a responsible way,” said Jordan Smith, executive director of Mainspring Conservation Trust. “But woody debris, dead or alive, is an important component of natural rivers, and removing it haphazardly can have some pretty serious impacts on habitat, food systems, nutrient cycles, things like that. We understand the purpose behind it, but we don’t think it’s being done responsibly from the Army Corps’ standpoint.”
Accusations of excessive debris removal and destruction of fragile ecosystems in the process are not isolated to Macon County. In Transylvania County, the Transylvania Times reported last week that Lauren Wilkie jumped into the Little River in order to block heavy machinery with her body to keep contractors from removing live trees and waterfall boulders on her property.
Hans Lohmeyer, stewardship coordinator with the nonprofit organization Conserving Carolina told the Transylvania Times that the well-intentioned effort to clear storm debris from that county’s rivers has turned into an ecological crisis.
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Lohmeyer says the destructive work will have long-term effects on endangered species like hellbenders, mudpuppies and freshwater mussels.
The Little Tennessee River is home to more than 40 endangered, threatened or rare species of fish, mollusks, insects, amphibians and reptiles, 100 species of native fish, 10 species of native mussels and a dozen crayfish species. Among these are the Citico darter, Smoky madtom and Little Tennessee crayfish, which aren’t found anywhere else in the world, and the newly named and scientifically described Sicklefin Redhorse.
According to a study from North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, the stretch of Little Tennessee River between Franklin and Fontana Lake (25 miles) has a faunal diversity that rivals any in the state and perhaps in the nation.
Unlike other places in Western North Carolina that saw an unprecedented level of destruction from Hurricane Helene, Macon County and the Little Tennessee River made it through the extreme weather event largely unscathed.
“Macon County is one of the counties eligible to receive disaster aid because it was impacted, but not to the same extent as watersheds to our east, like the Swannanoa River, French Broad, Nolichucky; those rivers were absolutely devastated,” said Jason Love, associate director at the Highlands Biological Station, and previous site manager at Coweeta Long-Term Ecological Research Program. “This barely made the top 10 floods in Macon County since 1944.”
According to Love, the United States Geological Survey river gauge near Otto recorded that the Little Tennessee River rose about 5,000 cubic feet per second during Hurricane Helene. This was significantly lower than the highest recorded CFS change recorded at the Otto gauge which occurred in 2016 when the river rose 8,000 cubic feet per second. During the Peeks Creek Disaster of 2004, when a slide destroyed 15 homes and killed six people, the river rose 7,900 cubic feet per second.
Debris removal equipment lined up before heading out to the Little Tennessee River. Bob Scott photo
“It just left me wondering, why is this [debris removal] going on in the Little Tennessee River, given that this was not a historic storm or historic flood, at least on the Little Tennessee Watershed,” said Love.
Although flooding may have been less severe on the Little Tennessee and Cullasaja rivers in Macon County than in other parts of Western North Carolina, the storm did still create buildups of debris that need to be removed.
“We’re not against woody debris removal where it makes sense, and there are places in the watershed where it does make sense,” said Love. “The corps is saying that this wood is an immediate threat to public safety. I can tell you, I paddle this river, some of these logs have been there the past decade, didn’t budge in Helene, so to say that the corps knows what’s going to happen with the wood… I think they’re overreaching, they’re overstating the risk and ignoring the ecological costs.”
On the Cullasaja, right across from Walmart, people have probably seen the log jam that has a motorboat stuck behind it.
“Get in there, remove that junk, because it’s a hazard,” Love said. “But to basically clear miles and miles of river of all the wood and cutting live trees because you think it’s leaning too far, or you think it has a dangerous branch overhead… it may make sense in the Swannanoa and rivers that have huge debris piles and tons of debris, but it doesn’t make sense in a river that didn’t experience that devastation.”
“Now, because of the corps and their overreaction, [the river] is being devastated,” Love continued.
County Manager Warren Cabe said Macon requested assistance with debris removal from a fixed receiving location in Highlands, for roadways and waterways through North Carolina Emergency Management. The state arranged for debris removal to be contracted through the Army Corps of Engineers.
The county was asked to provide locations with known debris issues or concerns.
“That information was passed on, and then the USACE evaluated and arranged for the removals,” said Cabe. “The information consisted of general locations and some aerial drone images of various debris spots.”
After that, the technical aspects of what is removed from waterways is managed by the Army Corps of Engineers.
“We are aware that some residents are concerned about the removal process,” said Cabe. “The USACE is using subcontractors to complete the work and are monitoring. The USACE is a very knowledgeable agency with a significant amount of expertise in monitoring and managing waterway activities so we are hopeful that the process will ultimately result in a safe and well managed system of waterways in Macon County.”
Macon County does not have to contract with any entity for the debris removal, provide funding or request reimbursement as the process is conducted between North Carolina and the USACE. Basically, once Macon County made the request, removal and funding are out of its hands, managed instead by the state and USACE.
Heavy machinery caused disturbances at access points along the banks of the Little Tennessee river. Jason Love photo
“Macon County wants to keep our environment clean and healthy and to maintain the quality of our water systems and would not knowingly contribute to any process that does otherwise,” said Cabe. “We appreciate the concerns from individuals and groups about this process and we have referred them to the appropriate agency or individual.”
Residents and environmental groups do not posit that county leaders or even the USACE have bad intentions, but that the approach to debris removal is too generalized.
“Our county is doing the right thing by them; they’re looking out for public safety. They’re not stream ecologists, so they’re leaning on the corps,” said Love. “I understand the mission. I think everyone agrees that in those rivers hardest hit, we want debris cleanup. But the Little Tennessee isn’t one of those rivers. It needs to be more targeted, not just the whole river.”
According to David Connolly, chief public affairs officer for the USACE Wilmington District, AshBritt was awarded the Advanced Contracting Initiative (ACI) debris removal contract for Region 7.
AshBritt, out of Florida, is a national turnkey rapid-response disaster recovery and special environmental services contractor. In 2019, residents in Northern California filed a federal class action in which they claimed AshBritt removed “excessive amounts of soil” and structures unaffected by recent wildfires. The company, hired by Kentucky after floods ravaged eastern parts of the state in July 2022, was accused in lawsuits following cleanup of allowing subcontractors to steal valuable trees from private property, destroying a family’s home and failing to pay workers.
“These contracts are implemented specifically for emergency and disaster scenarios,” said Connolly. “This was awarded based on a full and open competition.”
The USACE has contracted with AshBritt for debris removal in rights of way, waterways and private property, as well as commercial property and demolition that are still in the initial stages of scoping and contracting actions.
“We are clearing debris across the entire impacted area of Western North Carolina,” said Connolly.
Currently the right of way debris removal is 99% complete across 10 counties, and USACE is only hitting “hot spots” as requested by counties. USACE is actively removing debris or in contracting actions across 23 counties or areas for waterways, with approximately 20% completed.
Private property debris removal is about 27% complete.
According to Connolly, contractors are not paid by the weight of debris removed, as some have alleged; they are paid based on the cubic yardage removed from contracted sites.
“There are government quality assurance representatives at every location monitoring the debris removed from the site to ensure the correct material is removed,” said Connolly. “Additionally, there are quality assurance representatives present at the temporary debris reduction sites that are validating the amount of material that is being removed. There are multiple checks and balances throughout the system to ensure what USACE contracted for is delivered.”
According to Connolly, there were 142 sites identified and requested by Macon County that were determined eligible for debris removal. FEMA determined debris eligibility requirements for the Direct Federal Assistance program.
“If FEMA determines the debris to be storm generated or where debris impedes navigation or produces a hazard to safety, it is removed,” said Connolly.
But some residents in Macon County think that these agencies might be getting the distinction between Helene debris, hazardous debris and natural buildup wrong. And that the consequences could be dire.
“When you go into these systems like is being done right now and remove mass quantities of dead debris and living trees that are part of the system, it has impacts,” said Smith. “A lot of what’s being removed is actually stabilizing the riverbanks. A lot of what we’re seeing removed, we don’t think falls within the scope of what the Army Corps’ intentions are. Whether or whose shoulders that falls on, we’re not clear about. We just know that what’s happening is excessive and it’s massive.”
Once this type of removal is conducted, the damage is done.
“This is most likely the most damaging ecological event from the past 100 years to impact this river,” said Love.
Too much removal of debris can spell disaster for waterways because, while major storms like Helene cause a quick buildup of debris that wouldn’t normally make it into a river, there is a natural level of debris buildup that is expected within a waterway and benefits the ecology of a stream or river.
Woody debris within a waterway or along its banks provide important habitat for many of its inhabitants. Love explained that waterfowl and salamanders both use logs for protection and cover; insects burrow under logs.
“You’re removing critical habitat for a lot of species,” said Love. “There’s some freshwater mussel species who are associated with logs, because those logs slow down the current, kind of give a little hiding place, a little shelter for these mussels.”
Woody debris also plays an important part in nutrient cycling. Many species in a river feed on wood, and without access to that nutrient source, species abundance and diversity decline.
“It seems like now that this is going on, this is going to be incredibly hard to stop,” said Love. “The corps has been overwhelmed. Folks have been working around the clock to try to deal with this disaster that’s unprecedented in North Carolina’s history, the nation’s history, to have this much flood damage, 7,000 plus bridges washed out. I just think they’re trying to get the work done and get it done efficiently and fast. Sometimes you kind of miss the big picture and you have incidents like this where it sounded good on paper, but the reality is a little different.”
