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Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop paid a visit to a Neuse River stormwater outfall in Smithfield this week, after a caller reported the smell of sewage in the area.

It wasn’t the first time.

“For a while, I think it wasn’t as smelly, so people stopped reporting it, but we’re back,” Samantha said. “We’re back — it’s still smelly out there.”

In the summer of 2024, Samantha and Program Director Clay Barber came across the outfall while scouting potential locations for a Smithfield trash trap. The smell of sewage was strong, and follow-up sampling and water-quality testing revealed very high levels of bacteria at the outfall. In November 2024, Samantha and Water Quality Specialist Taylor Register met with Smithfield town officials and North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality staff to talk about the problem. Dye and smoke testing in the town’s sewer systems turned up no issues, and a theory that the pollution was coming from a nearby lumber mill was not substantiated.

Though the problem seemed to abate for a time, it clearly hasn’t gone away, Samantha said.

“There’s something discharging, and it’s discharging a lot,” she said. “It smells terrible. It was also flowing like a waterfall, and there’s no reason why it should be flowing like that.”

On Wednesday, Sept. 15 — the day Samantha collected water samples at the outfall — she asked Taylor to look into when rain had last occurred in the area and how much had fallen. The last rain was .36” four days prior.

“This is a red flag, because we shouldn’t see a storm drain running in a dry period,” Samantha said. “That’s why we took a bacteria sample.”

The results she got back on Thursday were exactly what she expected: 1,203 MPN (most probable number)/100 ml. The state standard is 235 MPN.

“That’s a big fail,” Samantha said. “I’m thankful for the person who called us and let us know this was happening. We’ll be following up with the town and DEQ again.”

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