SPOTLIGHT
NEUSE T
RIVERKEEPER
here is no murky water under the bridge for Matthew Starr. “My goal is fishable, swimmable, drinkable water, which means my goal is to stop pollution from entering our surface water.” Starr is the Upper Neuse Riverkeeper, a role with the nonprofit Sound Rivers that he describes as “part investigator, part journalist, part enforcement. I wear a bunch of different hats, but at the end of the day it’s all about the voice for the river. I’m the voice for the river, and for the people and the environment in and around the river basin.” Starr grew up in northwest Raleigh and has early memories of playing in the creek behind his home. “I can remember my mom taking me out in summer rain storms to Lake Anne just off of Highway 70,” he says. “Playing as a kid fostered my awareness of public bodies of water. I’ve always been passionate about water.” After college, he entered the N.C. Army National Guard; when he returned from deployment in Iraq, he wanted to find a job with a purpose. He took an internship with the Neuse River Foundation – an organization that’s since become
Sound Rivers, a five-person team focused on preserving the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico River watersheds – and never turned back. “I realized I wanted to be the voice of change, not just the voice of ‘Let’s do this because someone’s paying us to do it.’ I’d do this job for free, I feel so strongly about it.” What Starr feels most strongly about is reducing and ultimately eliminating water pollution. His priority is the northern part of the 248-mile-long Neuse River, a stretch that begins in Raleigh at Falls Lake, Raleigh’s main source of drinking water, and extends up to the Leonir-Wayne county line. There’s also the surrounding tributary creeks and streams, about 3,000 square miles of total river basin. Any given day for Starr might include paddling around coal ash ponds, responding to tips about pollution, or walking the shore of a tributary, where he’ll collect water samples and document observations. He turns what he sees into data, which he uses to collaborate with researchers and his Sound Rivers colleagues to advocate for environmental reform. This year, for example, he’s been heavily involved in seeking coal ash cleanup commitments
Learn more at soundrivers.org
56 | WALTER
Ray Black III
Our Town
