The Reedy River: the birthplace of Greenville, home to the annual Greenville Ducky Derby, a place where I’ve spent many relaxing Saturday afternoons, and a river that has flown alongside me my whole life.
Just as the inhabitants of Richmond have grown up tied to the James, I too grew up alongside a river. The Reedy River of Greenville is a little different from the majestic James. While the James spans an extensive 358 miles, the Reedy spans 65. While the James begins its journey in the Appalachian Mountains and pours into the Chesapeake Bay, the Reedy arises in the Blue Ridge Mountains and flows back into the Saluda River. While the James is, for most of the year, perfectly safe to swim in, sometimes people are urged not to put their feet in the water of the Reedy (I do it anyways). While the James is filled with rapids, spanning from class I to class IV, the Reedy has very few. However, while the Reedy River is far from being as majestic as the James and lacks many of the features that attract so many people to it, the Reedy still holds an important place in my heart. In her blog post “Change of Pace” (http://blog.richmond.edu/james/2012/04/22/a-change-of-place/), Shannon says, “Anyone who’s grown up near a body of water can attest to the gradual and unalterable dependency that develops between a sea, bay, lake, or river and its denizens. Everyone has their own explanations as to why this is, but I believe it’s primarily owing to the quality of water as moving and alive, which allows those who interact with it to experience by extension its perpetual shifts and flows . . . Over the past few years, I’ve experienced significant changes in my life. At their core, these changes can be traced back to the places I’ve lived.” I don’t think she could have said it more perfectly. As I have grown up, I have developed a strong connection with my surroundings, and the Reedy has been very much included in that. The Reedy has been there throughout the flow of my life, from my childhood to my awkward middle school phase to young adulthood. From being the tumultuous ocean for my miniature raft I had to construct for challenge class in fifth grade to providing the perfect patch of grass for a picnic with my friends to offering the perfect spots for exploration and reflection.
Learning more about the James River, a river that is starting to become another important body of water in my life, has inspired to me to learn a little more about the river that has watched me grow. Some of what I found was disheartening: the Reedy River is the most historically polluted river in South Carolina. As the textile industry in Greenville grew, the river was used to dispose of waste from the factories. At one point, the river even ran a different color everyday depending on what color dyes the textiles were using, and the river was also receiving sewage and urban runoff. After a clean water act was passed and the water quality of the river began to improve, a pipeline burst and more than a million gallons of diesel fuel were released into the water. This wiped on almost an entire food chain on part of the river. However, since then the Reedy has come a long way: people are constantly working to find ways not just to improve the water quality of the river, but also to revitalize the area around the river, which gives me a lot of hope.
http://www.friendsofthereedyriver.org/
Learning more about the Reedy has shown me again how much I don’t know about my surroundings (there seems to be a theme here). It has inspired me to learn more, which I can only hope will strengthen my connection with the world around me.
