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Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman and Water Quality Specialist Taylor Register Seijo covered a lot of eastern North Carolina ground to conduct the first round of sampling for the Regional Wastewater Plan grant.

“This grant has a lot of partners and moving parts, but in short the goal is to try and identify specific communities at risk of septic pollution across Beaufort, Pitt, Martin, Bertie and Hertford counties,” Taylor said. “From there, further work can be done to recommend wastewater infrastructure improvements and assist local governments with funding applications to help address the issues identified.”

Mid-East Commission is heading up the project, while Sound Rivers is handling the sampling side of things.

“We are responsible for collecting a year’s worth of data to document pollution impacts, and Mid-East will use our data to help make their recommendations,” Taylor said.

They started with risk assessment maps about a month ago, then whittled down potential sampling sites, looking for specific areas in each county with concentrated “hot spots” containing large numbers of properties with septic tanks, are at risk for flooding and in underserved communities.

“Honestly, all of that was the easy part,” Taylor said. “The tricky part was finding accessible sample locations along all of these streams and creeks. That has been the hardest part — just finding spots where we could actually physically get to in order to sample.”

The next step is to sample for bacteria and basic water-quality data at each of the 12 sites ultimately selected, with one conducted during dry conditions and another post-rain, then look at that data to determine five sites most at risk for contamination.

“From there, we will sample those five sites for the next year in a mix of weather conditions and seasons, looking for the same parameters as before, as well as doing DNA testing to prove that any contamination present is, in fact human,” Taylor said. “So, we definitely have our work cut out for us.”

For this week’s first round of sampling, Taylor and Katey split up the sites — six each.

“We were both in the field collecting samples for about five hours today, lots of driving and lots of scrambling underneath bridges in the middle of nowhere,” she said. “But our first sampling day was a success, we checked in afterwards and neither of us had any major issues aside from having to shift some of our access points around.”

The site of particular concern that Taylor encountered was at Johnsons Mill Run, a tributary of the Tar River, in Greenville. Johnsons Mill Run is a 303d-listed (impaired) stream with a “hot spot” directly upstream.

“When I got down there, I was greeted with a milky colored and extremely smelly stream, which we know checks the boxes for potential human sewage contamination,” Taylor said. “I don’t want to make any conclusions before we read our samples, but it was really, really gross down there.”

Sites sampled include Ahoskie Creek (Hertford County); a tributary of Pungo Creek on Smith Shore Road (Beaufort County); a tributary of Broad Creek off of Turkey Trot 2 Road (Beaufort County); Haw Branch (reference site, Beaufort County); Silas Creek (Beaufort County); Johnsons Mill Run, Hardee Creek and Pinelog Branch (Pitt County); Barbeque Swamp and Roquist Creek (Bertie County); Dog Branch (Martin County) and a tributary of Ross Swamp off Clark Road (Martin County).

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