In this episode we interview Haw River Assembly Executive Director Emily Sutton about our wild and damaged river, in a discussion that spans environmental strategy, river-personhood, and our worries for the future.

HRA is lobbying NC’s Environmental Management Commission. The group that is responsible for setting state pollution regulations is taking public comment on their draft language new laws on PFAS contaminants.

The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission (EMC) plans to adopt a set of rules that were written by polluters and would allow nearly 500 industrial facilities across North Carolina to continue to dump toxic PFAS and 1,4-dioxane into our rivers and drinking water supplies. Rather than require industries and wastewater plants to reduce their chemical pollution, these rules only make dischargers collect a handful of samples and write a plan for how they could reduce pollution. There are no consequences or penalties if the polluter fails to cut its pollution—even if the polluter increases its toxic discharges. The rules do nothing to prevent current or future pollution.

You can send a written comment to NC’s environmental regulatory commission here. Deadline for comments is June 15, 2026. Don’t wait.

You can find more about the Haw River Assembly here.

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Thanks for listening.