News

Riverside land being used as a dumping ground for construction materials has stopped, thanks to action taken by Water Quality Specialist Taylor Register.

Last week, Sound Rivers received multiple reports about a potential dumping issue on the Neuse River at Bridgeton.

“According to the reports, the owner of the land has been using this property as a dumping ground for various construction materials, and a lot of the debris has made its way into the river,” Taylor said. “Even worse, the owner has also been piling this debris into the low-lying wetlands on the property, then filling over it with dirt in an attempt to level out the land and eventually build on top of it.”

Since the land in question is in a flood-prone area, Taylor shifted into investigation mode to see what could be done.

“After doing some initial research, we could not find any permits for this property to be doing work of this nature,” she said. “We also could not legally access this property to get more eyes on the situation, so we had to go ahead and escalate this up to (North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality) to see if they could do anything from their end.”

They could, and did. Staff at NCDEQ’s Division of Coastal Management determined that the land disturbance was occurring within the 50-foot riparian buffer area and it appeared the owner was trying to develop an “area of environmental concern” without a CAMA permit.

“They have since ordered the property owner to cease all development activities until further notice, and several NCDEQ staff members from various divisions will be going out for a site visit at the end of this week,” Taylor said.

Taylor and Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop plan to investigate the site from the water next week.

“We’re currently hopeful that this will be resolved quickly since DEQ has really been on top of their game with this one,” Taylor said.

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