17 Yadkin River Basin I B Lakes -Greater Than 1,000 Acres Coastal Supplement The eighteen reports covering various drainage areas in the district present information for the specific basins. The Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin is North Carolina’s second largest basin, including 5,862 stream miles and 22,988 lake acres, and spanning 21 counties and 93 municipalities. County growth rates over this period range from slight decreases in Richmond and Anson counties to a staggering 184 percent increase in Union County. The watershed is home to a number of unique geological features, such as Pilot Mountain, a 2,421 ft metamorphic quartzite monadnock, which was the original inspiration for "Mount Pilot" in the 1960s television show The Andy Griffith Show. Yadkin Riverkeeper is a nonprofit, membership organization whose mission is to protect and enhance the Yadkin Pee Dee River basin through education, advocacy and action. Twenty-five public utilities draw water from the river. Iredell County, which lies entirely within the basin, has more dairy cattle than any other county in the state and the basin, as a whole, contains 42 percent of all the dairy cattle in North Carolina. In an average water basin, between 5 and 58 tons per square mile per year (t/mi2/yr) of fine-grained sediment are removed from the surrounding land in surface runoff but the Yadkin–Pee Dee River Basin sees 300 t/mi2/yr in runoff due to rapid population growth and agricultural practices that leave bare soil exposed to erosion. [5] This is near Mount Airy, North Carolina, the basis for the city of Mayberry. They, plus four private industries, hold permits to discharge treated wastewater into the river. [1], The watershed starts in the northwestern corner of North Carolina near Blowing Rock[2] (protruding only slightly into Carroll and Patrick counties of Virginia) and extends south by southeast, crossing the south central border into South Carolina, with slightly more than half of the watershed in North Carolina. The basin contains several rare and endangered aquatic species such as mussels, as well as state-designated Significant Aquatic Habitats and historical sites such as gold mines and an ancient Native American mound site. Many waters in the Yadkin-Pee Dee basin have been given a use-support rating of impaired by DWQ. The majority of the basin is within the Piedmont geographical area of the United States, but it also drains the coastal plains of North and South Carolina, and parts of the Appalachian Mountains, in North Carolina. Over the same period, rural counties are projected to slowly decline in population. In Wilkes County, the Yadkin is impounded to form Kerr Scott Reservoir. The Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin drains the watersheds that empty into the Yadkin-Pee Dee River. [15] In South Carolina, these include the Lynches River, Great Pee Dee River, Little Pee Dee River, Black River and Waccamaw River,[2] while in North Carolina, the major rivers include the Yadkin River, South Yadkin River, Abbotts Creek, Roaring River, Uwharrie River and Rocky River. It continues to flow southeast, passing into South Carolina southwest of Rockingham. There are 22,988 acres of lakes and 5,863 miles of watercourses in the basin. North Carolina’s portion of the Yadkin-Pee Dee River basin includes seven eight-digit watersheds and 230 14-digit watersheds, covering an area of 7,200 square miles. It is the principal source of water for the central Carolina region; however, it is threatened by industrial pollution and poor management. [16], As of 2010,[update] thirty-nine percent of rivers within the North Carolina section of the basin fail to meet the state water quality standards and are listed as "impaired". Such an increase in developed land poses a significant threat to water quality and stream health because it will be accompanied by a similar increase in impervious surfaces. The North Carolina portion of the Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin covers an area of about 7,221 square miles and takes in all or parts of 24 counties, making it the second largest river basin in North Carolina. … [9], In North Carolina, 42 percent of the state's dairy cattle are raised in the basin (half of that number in the South Yadkin Subbasin alone). About the Basin Sampling Sites Map Pee Dee River at Hwy. [2] Bald eagles can be found in the locality of Badin Lake. Its headwaters rise near Blowing Rock, North Carolina, and the basin drains to the Atlantic Ocean in Winyah Bay, east of Georgetown, South Carolina.