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Sound Rivers has covered the sediment pollution of Lick Creek extensively. Now, its neighbor just the north, Little Lick Creek, is suffering the same.

“It’s the same thing that we’ve been tracking in Durham all along,” said Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop. “There’s a significant development under construction in one of the Falls Lake overlays and neighbors have reported dirt just falling into the creek.”

Samantha visited the area on Thursday, following the report from a community resident that Little Lick Creek was filled with sediment after heavy rain — sediment that could be swept downstream into Falls Lake, a major drinking-water source for Raleigh.

“The Falls Village development is clearing hundreds of acres of land just a mile and a half from Falls Lake,” Samantha said. “Durham should not allow such large-scale land clearing so near to our drinking water source.”

Potential ways to address sediment pollution have become a little less clear after Durham was forced to halt its Unified Development Ordinance process two weeks ago. A UDO is the regulation side of cities’ land-use plans.

“We were hopeful that this UDO update would address some of these pollution sources by passing stronger protections, especially for Falls Lake watershed,” Samantha said. “But that’s been paused, and now we don’t have a clear path forward for creating more protections for our waterways. So, it’s ‘business as usual’ in Durham, and, unfortunately, that looks like dirty, polluted water flowing into Falls Lake.”

The community members that reported the issue to Sound Rivers, also informed Durham County of the problem.

“Durham sent their inspectors to investigate but they haven’t heard anything back yet,” Samantha said.

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