Background:

The Upper Guyandotte Watershed Association (UGWA) was founded in response to the devastating flooding of 2001. Since that time, the founding members have gained a better understanding of the water quality and pollution problems present in the watershed and have taken on projects addressing a variety of issues. UGWA continues to grow and gain respect in the community with each passing year.

UGWA is a grassroots, community-based organization striving to empower citizens to take a leadership role on environmental issues in the headwaters of the Guyandotte River. The membership and Board of UGWA are broad-based including persons from industry, environmental groups, local and state government, sportsmen’s clubs, tourism, and local businesses. UGWA has garnered a tremendous amount of public support and has also partnered with a number of different local, state, and federal agencies.

The Upper Guyandotte watershed is 260 square miles in size and is heavily forested. The watershed includes portions of both eastern Wyoming and southern Raleigh Counties, West Virginia and has a population of approximately 7,700. The landscape is rugged topography with steep hillsides and narrow valley floodplains. Many watershed communities are located in these valleys which are prone to flooding. Coal mining and logging are the major industries in the watershed.

This watershed area encompasses the headwaters of the Guyandotte River downstream to the mouth of Pinnacle Creek, only a portion of the entire Upper Guyandotte basin. Stonecoal Creek and Winding Gulf rise in Raleigh County and join to form the Guyandotte River just above the Raleigh-Wyoming county line, near Amigo. The Guyandotte River flows westerly through Wyoming County then flows northwesterly, eventually draining into the Ohio River at Huntington, West Virginia.

Communities in the watershed are small and rural; many originally existed as coal camps and were built in the early 1900s. Approximately 66% of the homes have no household wastewater treatment. The goal of the Upper Guyandotte Watershed Association is to provide a framework for reducing nonpoint sources of metals and fecal coliform bacteria in order to achieve required load reductions and attain water quality standards in all Upper Guyandotte streams affected by these pollutants.

Goals and Accomplishments:

The mission of the Upper Guyandotte Watershed Association is to “promote a cleaner, healthier, and more prosperous watershed that is more attractive to all stakeholders and is better managed to withstand the impacts of flooding”.

Our long-term goals are:

• Achieve measurable improvements in water quality by implementing projects that reduce sources of pollution.
• Build a strong, enduring watershed organization.
• Foster a sense of community pride and stewardship towards the river in watershed residents.
• Make achieving a healthy environment a priority for policy-makers by establishing productive relationships with local, state, and federal decision makers.
• Promote environmental justice by giving voice to the concerns of low-income and disenfranchised citizens in our watershed.
• Advocate for better management practices that will reduce the threat of flooding for our watershed communities.

In the past few years, UGWA has made great strides towards accomplishing its mission. Our successes are due, in large part, to the dedication of UGWA volunteers and the support of our partners. Major accomplishments include:

• Received the “Wastewater” Award from the WV Watershed Network at Watershed Celebration Day 2006.
• Hired an Executive Director. Created and filled two new Americorps*VISTA positions.
• Collected, baled, and recycled 50 tons of junk appliances, cars and scrap metal during the 3rd Annual Appliance and Scrap Metal Collection.
• Designed and implemented a Long Term Monitoring Program which includes quarterly data collection at 9 sites across the watershed.
• Collected 11.5 tons of trash from the banks of the Guyandotte River during the 2006 Make It Shine stream cleanup.
• Recruited 40 new UGWA members.

Partners and Contributors:

• Canaan Valley Institute
• WV Department of Environmental Protection
• WV Division of Natural Resources
• Raleigh County PSD
• Wyoming County Commission
• Rural Appalachian Improvement League
• Stream Partners Program
• Mountain Resource Conservation & Development Council