About
About
Learn About Our History
& Our Mission…
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Cape Fear River Watch is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that was founded in 1993. Founders Bouty Baldridge and Bruce Watkins envisioned a permanent nonprofit organization, open to everyone, and dedicated to the improvement and preservation of the health, beauty, cleanliness, and heritage of the Cape Fear River basin. We strive to honor their vision.
Our mission is to protect and improve the water quality of the Cape Fear River Basin for all people through education, advocacy and action.
Working with our partners, we have a history of proven success in protecting our watershed. We have been instrumental in requiring Duke Energy to clean up power plant coal ash. We dissuaded Titan America from building a potentially significant pollution source in the form of a cement plant along the banks of the Cape Fear River.
We are the region’s go-to source for information, advocacy and legal action related to GenX and other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) discharged into the environment from a DuPont/Chemours facility located in Fayetteville, NC. In February 2019, our lawsuits culminated in a signed Consent Order between CFRW, the NC Department of Environmental Quality and Chemours which will drastically reduce the release of PFAS into our environment.
Additionally, CFRW plays a key coordination role in the Cape Fear River Partnership which is focused on fisheries restoration in the Cape Fear River.
We offer multiple opportunities for citizen engagement through our citizen science Creekwatchers program, monthly seminars, paddles and clean-ups. We provide education to both children and adults through eco-tours and summer camps. We also manage the Greenfield Lake boathouse at a Wilmington city park, which gives the community access to the lake on paddle boats, kayaks and canoes.
CFRW is an active member of the worldwide Waterkeeper Alliance, the world’s largest and fastest growing nonprofit solely focused on clean water. Our full time RiverKeeper®, Kemp Burdette was recently recognized by the alliance as a “Waterkeeper Warrior” as an individuals that has fought and won some of the most significant clean water battles of the past 20 years.
In 2018, we were honored to be named “Conservation Organization of the Year” at the 56th Annual Governor’s Conservation Achievement Awards.
Education
We provide education to children and adults throughout the Cape Fear Basin through monthly seminars, summer camps, eco-tours, internships and programs at the Battleship as well as Lock & Dam 1
Advocacy
Our RIVERKEEPER® and River Watch members make their voices heard to local, state and federal legislators to improve the water quality of the Cape Fear Basin and hold heavy polluting industries accountable.
Action
We paddle. We clean-up. We monitor water quality and conduct research. We educate citizens and community members, from age 1-100! We care for our region’s rivers, streams, and tributaries – and you can too! Keep up-to-date about our activities, and join in anytime!
Waterkeeper Alliance
We are a member of The WaterKeeper Alliance, an environmental “neighborhood watch” program designed to protect communities and the waters on which they depend by making all waterways fishable, swimmable, and drinkable.
Kemp Burdette, Cape Fear RIVERKEEPER®
I love the Cape Fear River. Being your RIVERKEEPER® is, for me, a dream come true. I am honored and humbled to be the voice of the river and excited to be a strong advocate for a clean, healthy, and beautiful Cape Fear River.
“Rivers run through our history and folklore, and link us as a people. They nourish and refresh us and provide a home for dazzling varieties of fish, wildlife, trees, and plants of every sort. We are a nation rich in rivers.”
-Wilmington Native Charles Kuralt, from The Magic of Rivers
Cape Fear River Watch | 617 Surry Street | Wilmington, NC 28401 | Phone: 910.762.5606
