Two days after Christmas, an intrepid trio over community activists paddled up the Clinch and Emory Rivers to record the conditions and take water samples.  Joining forces were Sandra Diaz, National Field Coordinator for Appalachian Voices, the Hurricane Creekeeper John Wathen, and Watauga Riverkeeper Donna Lisenby.  Here's some video of their brave voyage:

 From what I understand, the water samples recovered on this mission are the ones that were subsequently tested by Appalachian State University and reported about in many major national media outlets, like this report in the Times:

Appalachian Voices sampled water from three locations — near the spill site, about half a mile downstream and about two miles downstream — and found eight metals that exceeded drinking water limits. At the two-mile point, arsenic was at a level 35 times the drinking water limit. The group also expressed concern that standards for fish and aquatic life, which are stricter than drinking water standards, in part because heavy metals accumulate in animal tissue over time, had been exceeded.

“These are some of the most astonishing water-quality sampling results I’ve ever seen in my 10 years of working on rivers,” said Donna Lisenby, a spokeswoman for Appalachian Voices who helped collect the samples.

Groups like United Mountain Defense have since set out to test water quality in wells and springs in the area.  We'll be paying close attention to those results.