News

A Riverkeeper’s job may involve the occasional exciting event on the waterways, but it’s a rare occasion when that extends to the skies.

On Monday, Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop and water-quality intern Tierney Reardon took off from the Kinston airport for some aerial surveillance of the Neuse River, courtesy of SouthWings volunteer pilot Rolf Wallin.

It came as a mid-air surprise to the pilot and his passengers that the airport was being shut down for maintenance work.

“We almost couldn’t land because they decided to close the runway while we were in the air, but we were able to work as a team — Rolf piloting and Tierney snapping photos — while I called air traffic control from my cell phone, screaming into the wind, to sort it out from the sky,” Samantha laughed. “Thankfully, we were granted permission to land back in Kinston.”

Less exciting, and more concerning to water quality, was the number of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) they spied from the sky in the Kinston/Contentnea Creek area. Contentnea Creek is a tributary of the Neuse River.

“We saw five swine factory farms located in the 100-year floodplain, and in a few cases, the floodway — meaning that they have flooded and will flood again,” Samantha said, adding that monitoring such facilities is critical to Sound Rivers’ CAFO advocacy work to remove toxic swine-waste lagoons from floodplains and floodways.

“In the event that a hurricane comes here, we will monitor these locations for impacts, and continue to call for funding for the responsible closeout of toxic waste lagoons from places that flood,” she said.

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