America's Most Endangered Rivers - (Page 18) NUMBER 1 NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA Catawba-Watere e River THR E AT : O U T D AT E D WAT E R S U P P LY M A N A G E M E N T Summary The Catawba-Wateree River has served communities in the Southeast for thousands of years. This regional treasure was home to some of the first Native American tribes encountered by Europeans in the United States. The river now provides drinking water to millions, supports a myriad of local industries, and sustains the high quality of life residents enjoy. However, under this rich exterior, the Catawba-Wateree River is being drained away by water mismanagement and explosive population growth. These threats, combined with predictions of more frequent droughts due to global warming, impair the river’s health and its ability to provide for residents in the future is at risk. North Carolina and South Carolina have a choice: they can continue to demonstrate ineffectual river management and move toward a future of water scarcity and uncertainty, or embrace river protection and sustainable water use to ensure a thriving economy and high quality of life for years to come. the towns of Morganton, Hickory and Charlotte, North Carolina, and Rock Hill, Lancaster and Camden, South Carolina. The basin is home to threatened and endangered species such as the shortnose sturgeon, robust redhorse, Schweinitz's sunflower and the Carolina heelsplitter mussel. The Catawba-Wateree River sustains the world’s second- CATAWBA-WATEREE RIVER AT-A-GLANCE RIVER LENGTH: 300 miles WATERSHED AREA: 5,665 square miles LARGEST CITY IN THE WATERSHED: Charlotte, NC (pop. 695,995) DID YOU KNOW? The Catawba-Wateree River watershed is the most populated in North Carolina. The River The Catawba River originates in the fabled Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina and flows through the Charlotte metropolitan area before reaching South Carolina, where its name changes to the Wateree River. It eventually reaches its confluence with the Congaree River southeast of the city of Columbia. The river supplies drinking water to 1.3 million people on its heavily populated lower reaches, including A M E R I C A’ S M O S T E N DA N G E R E D R I V E R S ™ : 2 0 0 8 E D I T I O N | C ATAW B A - WAT E R E E R I V E R W W W. A M E R I C A N R I V E R S . O R G ©NANCY PIERCE/WWW.NANCYPIERCEPHOTO.COM http://www.americanrivers.org
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.