Great work, Summer Interns!

September 20, 2024

Every summer, the arrival of interns brings a flurry of activity and excitement to the Catawba Riverkeeper office. This year, we were fortunate enough to have 6 summer interns contribute their own unique skills to furthering the work of preserving, protecting, and restoring the Catawba-Wateree River Basin.

Read on to learn more about our interns’ experiences!


Will Garrett | South Fork Watershed Intern | Tufts University

As the South Fork Watershed Intern, Will was able to work on a variety of projects, including the Swim Guide program, environmental justice mapping, fish cataloging, and permit reviewing. At the end of the summer, Will shared that “this internship enabled me to explore the scientific aspects of environmental and conservation work, helping me develop a new skill set that I can apply to future endeavors.” Click here to watch Will’s final presentation on Lithium!


Greta Hopf | Southern Watershed Intern | University of Alabama in Huntsville

During her internship, Greta gained experience in all aspects of the Swim Guide program, from collecting water samples in the Southern watershed, transporting water samples to the Riverkeeper Lab, and testing the samples for E. Coli. When she wasn’t working on Swim Guide, Greta conducted research on culturing algae samples and using microscopy to identify algae blooms. You can view the slides for her final presentation here. Greta also spent some of her summer researching diversity, equity, and inclusion in the conservation sphere and researching the Carolina creekshell mussel.


Katie Brockland | Northern Watershed Intern | University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Based in our Morganton office, Katie also worked hard all summer to ensure that Swim Guide samples were collected, transported, and tested in the Northern Watershed. Katie's keen interest in exploring the intricate relationships between environmental dynamics, local communities, and human behavior led her to this internship, and she was glad for the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in water-quality monitoring along the waters of Burke County, NC. Her final project shared her research on 6PPD-quinone, a chemical used to strengthen tires that, according to emerging research, is negatively impacting steelhead, rainbow, and brook trout populations.


Mercedes Carrillo | Marketing Intern | University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Marketing Intern Mercedes also contributed greatly to the success of our Swim Guide Program. Every Friday, she took the data collected for Swim Guide and made it easily accessible for the public in the form of social media posts. During her internship, she focused on a variety of design, content creation, and event planning tasks, including creating flyers, social media posts, and promotional materials for various events like Jam at the Dam, Pig Pickin’ and Politicin,’ and RiverFest. Mercedes shared that ”the opportunity to work on a variety of projects has helped me develop a versatile skill set, and the experience of working within a non-profit organization has given me a deeper understanding of how design and communication can support important conservation causes.”


Parker Kabel | Outdoor Recreation Intern | University of Kentucky

Though perhaps a bit obvious to say, Parker, our Outdoor Recreation Intern, spent much of his time outside and on the water this summer. Supporting Eco-Tours, Full Moon Paddles, private paddles, and CREEK Program paddles gave Parker the opportunity to work with a wide range of people with a variety of backgrounds and paddling skills. When he wasn’t slinging kayaks or paddling with groups, Parker contributed greatly to the planning and preparation of numerous summer events, such as Jam at the Dam and RiverFest.


Nathan Young | Community Outreach Intern | University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Participating in the Catawba Riversweep last fall led Nathan to apply for the Community Outreach Intern position in the spring. In this role, Nathan met people from all over the river basin as he supported numerous public and private volunteer cleanups. While he was working with us this summer, Nathan also collected and organized data from our Trash Traps, and he completed the North Carolina fishing line recycling project. With his help, 8 new bins have been installed around the Central Basin! Nathan also spent time researching volunteer retention, primarily in an environmental conservation setting. 

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Comments on the Charlotte Data Center Moratorium

May 27, 2026
On the evening of May 26th, 2026, Catawba Riverkeeper Brandon Jones attended the Charlotte City Council Public Meeting. At this meeting, he shared our organization's comments on the proposed 150-day data center moratorium. These comments can be read below. "The Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation is a member-funded environmental nonprofit that educates, advocates, and protects the Catawba-Wateree River and all its tributaries. Our organization represents over 8,000 active members and nearly 3 million citizens who rely on the watershed for drinking water, recreation, and electricity. We are concerned that the growth of local data centers may overallocate our limited resources and decrease our ability to respond to drought. We appreciate the opportunity to comment on the proposed 150-day moratorium and strongly support the staff's recommendation to adopt it. Additionally, if adopted, we recommend that the study consider a tiered approach, transparency, and net water consumption. For our water resources, the most important data center metric is net water use. A 400 MW facility—like the one now under construction on Moores Chapel Road—may actually evaporate more water indirectly than directly for cooling. The nearby Catawba Nuclear Station uses approximately 30 MGD to produce 2,300 MW or 5.2 MGD from Lake Wylie per 400 MW. However, without transparency and reporting, it is difficult to know the current impact of these data centers and almost impossible to accurately forecast the industry's future. The most accurate forecast of our region's water resources is the Catawba Wateree Water Management Group’s 2026 Integrated Water Resources Plan. Unfortunately, this plan explicitly does not include increases in water use from data centers due to limited reliable information. It is absolutely critical that our community has accurate information. We need full transparency on the planned electrical and water use of large data centers. A ban of nondisclosure agreements between elected officials and developers could help alleviate suspicion and allow communities to make informed decisions about tradeoffs. The potential direct and indirect impact s of a project should be modeled by the CWWMG to determine its actual impacts. Those impacts could be mitigated by funding water conservation projects, as some data centers have already proposed. Once operating, we need reporting on the actual water and energy use. The cumulative impact must be understood to ensure capacity and resiliency. Water withdrawers from the Catawba utilize a Low Inflow Protocol during drought to help stretch the available supply. Large data centers need conservation plans that comply with this plan. It is hypocritical to ask residents and some businesses to restrict water use while permitting facilities that cannot or will not do the same. Most years, there is plenty of water for drinking, irrigation, ecological flows, and industry in the Catawba. However, droughts such as 2001, 2007, and today expose our vulnerabilities. These droughts are more likely in a warming climate, and we are becoming less resilient with a growing population and industrial demands. Sustainable water management requires careful planning and robust coordination between users, including data centers."

Helene Cleanups Continue 18 Months Later

By Susannah Bryant • March 19, 2026
Greg Nance has had his boots on the ground since the storm subsided.

All About Live Stakes

February 19, 2026
Live staking is a streambank restoration approach that reduces erosion and sediment pollution. This is the practice of planting dormant branch cuttings of native plants along streambanks (also known as riparian zones) to help hold soil in place along the waters' edge. Live stakes are planted along with native plant seeds and shrubs to create riparian buffers, which help prevent sediment from becoming a stream pollutant by securing the soil in place with good root systems. Riparian buffers also filter out other pollutants, such as chemicals, oils, fertilizers, and trash, before they enter our waterways.