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Although the drought in North Carolina
that is drying up lakes and rivers is
serious, there are a number of other
concerns about Falls Lake, currently the
only potable water source for 410,000
people, and the Neuse River, which also
supplies water to cities such as
Goldsboro, wildlife habitat all along
its course and feeds the Pamlico Sound.
Some of those concerns are:
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The Neuse River has been listed –
again – as one of the country’s ten
most endangered rivers. Ten years
ago the river was listed as
endangered, and the state and
citizens responded with the Neuse
Rules of 1997, a comprehensive
pollution reduction plan to reduce
nitrogen throughout the entire river
basin. Wake Forest residents hear of
those rules during every zoning and
land use change when the planning
department marks out the 50-foot
Neuse River buffers along streams.
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Falls Lake has a high concentration
of nutrients and sediment and will
soon be listed as impaired.
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About one million people will be
added to the present population in
the Neuse basin over the next 20
years. They will bring increased
runoff from cleared land and lawns.
Raleigh will need to pull more water
from Falls and expand its sewage
treatment plant on the Neuse near
the county line. Both could
adversely impact the river’s flow
and its nutrient load, affecting
downstream communities and fisheries
in the river and the sound.
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There will be increased pressure for
more hog farms and processing plants
along with the continued use of
waste lagoons and spraying the
contents on fields. When the Neuse
River Foundation held its 51-hour
Hog Vigil at the Legislative
Building in Raleigh this summer,
they had 40 gallons of hog waste in
a plastic swimming pool. A state
official warned them that if just
one drop of the waste was spilled on
the ground, it would be considered
hazardous material and the state Haz/Mat
team would be called to clean it up.
The foundation would be charged for
the clean-up. When the state
official was asked why the waste was
called hazardous material in Raleigh
but fertilizer out in the country,
there was no answer.
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The good news: Since 2003 the
Gazette and other newspapers have
been reporting on the pollutants and
lack of life in a small stream
leading from Raleigh’s E.M. Johnson
Water Treatment Plant to Falls Lake.
Wake Forest’s Frank LeBron reported
in June that, since the plant
stopped discharging into the stream
in February, “there are minnows and
crayfish in the entire creek below
the discharge point.”
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