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Saying that it will be hard to match the
damage done by mammoth hog-farming
operations in the Neuse River watershed,
the conservation group American Rivers
this week said that human waste, runoff
and habitat destruction could soon earn
that distinction.
“With sprawling coastal
development creeping inland and urban
growth in the headwaters, the Neuse is
the new frontier for poorly planned
development,” American Rivers said in
its annual report of the nation’s 10
most endangered rivers.
The Neuse was named to the
#8 spot – the fourth time in 12 years
the river has been named to the list.
The two Neuse Riverkeepers,
Larry Baldwin for the lower Neuse and
Dean Naujoks for the upper river,
nominated the river for a number of
reasons, including:
·
Falls Lake, which impounds the Neuse
shortly after it is formed near Durham,
will join Jordan Lake in 2008 on the
state’s list for impaired water because
of pollution from nutrients and
sediment. It is the state’s second
largest drinking-water supply lake,
serving 400,000 people including Wake
Forest and Rolesville.
·
The Environmental Protection Agency
calls sediment and stormwater runoff the
country’s number-one pollution problem
and says it is literally choking the
Neuse. More than half a million people
will move to Wake County in the next 20
years, increasing the problem.
·
“We have experienced a drought three of
the last five years,” Naujoks said.
“Falls Lake has virtually run dry on
several recent occasions.” He asked if
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which
operates Falls Lake, is releasing enough
water for downstream communities and
fisheries. “We don’t think so.” As Wake
County’s population grows, the demand
for Falls Lake water will also grow at
the same time towns such as Kinston,
which has asked for an additional 15
million gallons a day from the river,
are also developing.
·
PCB-contaminated fish have been found in
more than 30 miles of Crabtree Creek and
into the Neuse. The state is now testing
fish from the Neuse to see how far the
contamination from the old Ward
Transformer plant has traveled.
·
Raleigh and Clayton plan to expand the
capacities of their sewage treatment
plants, and other cities will follow.
How to clean the Neuse?
American Rivers recommends tough stances
on the part of state agencies and the
Legislatures to reduce the amount of
human and hog waste going into the
river.
“In 2007, the North Carolina
Legislature must implement a permanent
ban on new [hog waste] lagoons and spray
fields and require the phasing out of
existing lagoons and spray fields over a
five-year period.”
For more information, go to
http://www.AmericanRivers.org/
EndangeredRivers. |
