UPDATE JULY 30 2025 – Read the latest Seaboard Updates, including recent reporting about the Responsible Parties, cleanup Trust Fund, PFAS testing and more HERE.
We know how overwhelming the negative sentiment was when the creation of Randleman Lake was proposed back in the 1990s.
Local citizens, doctors, workers and environmental groups expressed serious concerns about damming Deep River – an industrial waste waterway for High Point’s furniture, textiles and chemical/paint/wood products manufacturers – to create a drinking water source. Many felt it was unnecessary, but the majority questioned the suitability of the water, which had been compromised by contaminants from a number of landfills and uperfund sites, including the 163-acre Seaboard Chemical/High Point Landfill property on Riverdale Drive in JAMESTOWN 27282.
Today, we found out just how against the idea the NC Division of Water Quality was. More documents and about this controversial project (and Deep River’s water quality history) are HERE.
Among MANY things the NCDEQ warned the “developers” about was the PHOSPHORUS from Eastside Wastewater Treatment Plant, located just 6 miles upstream from Randleman Lake. Eastside has racked up NUMEROUS violations and fines, including a civil fine for exceeding the limit by 44.8% last July. The NC Division of Water Resources said Eastside had four additional PHOSPHORUS violations in the 12 months prior.
We highlighted key passages from a December 1997 memo stating the NC DEQ issued a 401 Water Quality permit for the project with several REQUIRED conditions, one of which was that PTRWA develop and adhere to a Randleman Watershed Management Plan, and that the plan include modeling to establish the MAXIMUM nutrient load the new reservoir could receive from ALL sources.
The state conducts no ongoing testing or monitoring of surface water quality or ground water on Upper Deep River in Jamestown, or along Bull Run and Copper Branch (tributaries to Deep River).
Here are documents and the attendee list from the 1997 meeting:
The NCDEQ Division of Water Resources does little monitoring and enforcement of NPDES water permits in the Randleman Watershed.
