News

Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman loaded the Crestliner with her sampling gear for a trip to Blounts Creek last week.

The goal: to collect as much baseline data as possible before mining starts at the Martin Marietta Materials Vanceboro quarry.

“I took a bunch of YSI readings at sites as far as we could get upstream,” Katey said.

She said they were able to collect data from just past Herring Run’s confluence with Blounts Creek before the creek got too shallow to navigate safely.

A YSI meter can measure a wide range of water quality and chemistry indicators, including dissolved oxygen, pH, salinity, temperature, turbidity (clarity of water) and more.

Though limestone mining has not started at the Vanceboro Quarry, the stated plan to discharge up to 12 million gallons of freshwater per day into Blounts Creek will likely change current conditions in the creek that known as a nursery for saltwater species. Amassing data before mining starts will allow Sound Rivers to track impacts in real time.

According to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources, Martin Marietta Materials must inform DEMLR 30 days before mining is to begin, which has not yet happened.

To learn more about the effort to save Blounts Creek and Sound Rivers’ decade-long legal challenge to the mining process, listen to our podcast “The Story of Blounts Creek,” or read about it here.

Like the work your Riverkeeper is doing to protect the pristine Blounts Creek? We do! Donate today to support her work!