On the last day of August recently, I found myself a little lost in Lexington. After getting myself turned around a bit, and a few dropped phone calls, I finally made it to my destination: Skipjack Harbor, a small marina off of High Rock Lake, tucked away past a private development. As I arrived, I was greeted by Edgar and Brian, our current and past Riverkeepers as they prepared to get us out on our skiff on the lake. After loading up our supplies, gassing up the boat, checking all of our water testing materials, and getting a quick rundown of boat safety and emergency information, we were off!

While setting off to our testing points I learned a little bit more about the history of High Rock Lake. Named for High Rock Mountain that borders the Uwharrie Forest, this body of water was not always a lake until a dam was built (and presently managed by Cube Hydro of the Carolinas) to generate electricity in the late-1920s. It is one from a series of dams built along the Yadkin River between Davidson, Rowan, Stanly and Montgomery counties during a period in American history when hydropower was an innovative and a cleaner source of power. The primary purpose of the dams was to provide electricity of Alcoa’s aluminum smelter in the town of Badin. Today the lake covers 15,000 acres and is a reservoir for the Yadkin River that provides boating, fishing and other water-based recreational opportunities for thousands of North Carolinians.

High Rock Lake Dam – Presently managed by Cube Hydro

Our goal for the day was to both take water samples, and in person readings of chlorophyll-a present within High Rock Lake. As a Riverkeeper, chartered through Waterkeeper Alliance, we are currently tasked with testing sites in High Rock Lake twice a month for chlorophyll-a, dissolved oxygen, pH and temperature and once a month for nutrient pollutants (nitrogen & phosphorus). These are important markers that help us understand the health of the water. As we headed out to our testing points, I learned that we would be testing at 5 different points along a transect of the lower lake near the dam, as specified in our proposal to the Waterkeeper Alliance. YRK measures chlorophyll-a levels present in the water through a YSI test meter. This was done by using a probe at our 5 different locations, and taking measurements both at the surface of the water as well as 2 meters down. These readings and measurements taken together will give us an indication of how much chlorophyll-a is present in the lake. This is particularly important information because the presence of chlorophyll-a can be correlated to the levels of cyanobacteria in the water, which may produce harmful algal blooms that can be toxic to both humans and animals. We test for chlorophyll-a because it is easier to measure and we know that if the chlorophyll-a levels are high, it is likely that the cyanobacteria will be too. In addition, the NC Environmental Management Commission has proposed a new water quality standard for chlorophyll-a, specific to High Rock Lake. Once that standard is in place YRK will have historical and real time data available to measure compliance with the new standard.

Testing with YSI Probe for Chlorophyll Levels at 3rd point on Transect

We test for these levels because we know that there are risks present to our fresh water sources across our Watershed region. The past few decades have seen increased pollution to our waterways from storm water pollution, municipals wastewater, and agricultural run-off, including nutrient pollution from the spreading of dry litter waste from large scale poultry farms.

Pressure from excess pollution has led to high levels of nutrients in our water ways, that fuel Harmful Algal Blooms. For more information on HABs and what can be done about it go to YRK HAB Resources. These algal blooms thrive off of unused nutrients that are washed into our waterways, and they can have wide spread effects on the health of our water – such as promoting the growth of cyanobacteria which can be poisonous and harmful to the ecosystem and to us as well. The State of NC also monitors our water systems for these same parameters – but only tests every 5 years in accordance with federal requirements. That is why it becomes so necessary for groups like ours to do more regular monitoring, to ensure we don’t allow these problems to go unchecked for too long.

Fortunately, we found throughout our testing on this transect that the chlorophyll-a levels were low and at expected levels. That is a good indication that there are no HAB’s currently or dangerous levels of cyanobacteria. For me, I had never been to High Rock Lake before so as we finished up with our testing and sampling procedures, Brian and Edgar offered to take me to see the Dam up close. Even more, I learned that as part of Cube Hydro’s federal license to operate the Dam, they are required to develop and provide public recreational access and activities on the Yadkin Pee Dee Lakes. One way they have followed through on that investment is through the construction of a campground accessible mainly by kayakers on the Yadkin River State Trail on the dam portage trail. It is part of a broader project as well to develop more campground and recreational sites along the YRST blueway, an officially designated state trail that runs along the River for 163 miles from the tailrace of the Kerr Scott Reservoir in Wilkes County to the confluence of the Yadkin and Uwharrie Rivers near Lake Tillery in Montgomery County. It was pretty incredible to see a campground accessible by water and I was happy to see the investment for public access.

Yadkin River Campground off High rock Lake (accessible via water portage)

After finishing our tour around, the dam we decided to also check out Flat Swamp/ Pebble Beach Swim Area, where we collect Swim Guide E. coli samples every week during the summer. After boating around for the better part of the afternoon, we decided to head back to Skipjack Harbor and get on our way. As we unpacked the boat, there was discussion between the three of us that the testing results from the YSI test had been encouraging for today. Brian would be on his way to take our water samples to the lab in Kernersville for analysis that would provide us with more data that we could compare to our probe results as well. For me, it was an informative experience in learning about why water testing and monitoring is so crucial. High Rock Lake is hugely important both to the local community and economy, and more broadly as a reservoir source for the Yadkin. The health of this water will affect both the community and ecosystems that depend on it immediately, as well as the water that flows downstream from this lake. It was an encouraging and informative afternoon, and one that I enjoyed getting to be a part of.

Moriah Gendy, Diversity Communications Specialist