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Back-to-back sewage spills in Rocky Mount last week led Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman to do a deep dive into a problem plaguing the city — and the Tar River.

Both spills happened at Riverside Drive, just steps from the Tar River. On Wednesday, 42,000 gallons of sewage spilled from a manhole. But on Thursday, the spill started up again, this time dumping a total of 1,746,000 gallons of sewage over the next three days.

“Since 2018, Rocky Mount has had a total of 70 sewage spills,” Katey said. “Not all of them have been at the same place — there are a ton of different sites — but the majority, the biggest percentage of them, happen on Riverside Drive. That’s the site that’s spilled the most sewage out of all of them. It was 2.8 million gallons prior to these latest spills, but now that number is well over 4 million — and, according to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, all of it ends up in the Tar River.”

Katey has been recording the number of Notices of Violation the city has received from NCDEQ’s Division of Water Resources, as well as the number of fines. 

“They’ve been fined only four times over the past six years, and the total of those fines is $6,198,” she said. “I’ve reached out to DWR to ask about the decision-making process for when they do and when they don’t issue a civil penalty following a sewage spill.”

In her research, she’s also tracking details such as the location and date of each sewer spill, the total volume spilled and the total volume that reaches surface waters.

“Pretty much all the numbers are the exact same (total volume and total volume reaching surface waters), so that means the amount spilled is the amount that reached the river,” Katey said. “That indicates the city is not making any attempt to divert the sewage away from the river or keep it from getting into the river.”

Since the Riverside Drive spills originate from a manhole framed by storm drains on either side, raw sewage is being discharged into the river, right next to a public park, she said.

Katey said her next step is to run a side-by-side comparison of the number of Rocky Mount’s spills over time with that of Havelock. After experiencing ongoing sewage spills, Havelock was required to enter into a Special Order by Consent agreement with NCDEQ in 2019. The agreement set a deadline for the city to resolve a list of sewage infrastructure issues.

“Now that I have this full history of Rocky Mount’s NOVs and civil penalties to compare to the Havelock timeline and Special Order of Consent — we’re starting to see some inconsistencies in enforcement,” Katey said.  

Though Rocky Mount’s latest sewage spill went on for three days, ending Sunday, there is no indication any public notice about the spill, or warning to those using the waterway, was released until Wednesday. 

North Carolina state law requires public notification within 24 hours of when it’s determined that more than 1,000 gallons of sewage has reached surface waters. 

“Public notice should have been released on Friday last week,” Katey said.

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