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Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop was in the field in southeast Durham this week, checking how recent rains have affected Lick Creek sedimentation.

“We had a couple of inches of rain over last weekend, but it hasn’t rained since then, and the creeks we’re monitoring that run past active land-clearing development look as bad as they ever have,” Samantha said. “It’s been three days since we’ve had these rains. This isn’t runoff anymore.”

Where Rocky Branch — a nearby tributary of Lick Creek unimpacted by land-clearing development — measured 16 FNU (units of turbidity) on the YSI meter, the confluence of Martin Branch and Lick Creek measured 1,400 FNU, 28 times the state standard for turbidity.

“It is one of the highest measurements I’ve taken in the two years I’ve been monitoring this site,” Samantha said. “The only time it’s measured higher was in December of 2023, and that was at 1,500 FNU.”

The sediment turning the small, urban waterway “tomato soup” red likely comes from two sources: runoff or discharge.

“Sometimes sediment gets into our creeks because it’s running off from the sites being developed; sometimes it gets into our creeks because developers are allowing it to flow directly into our creeks from sediment basins,” Samantha said.

Sediment basins are constructed to capture stormwater runoff from land that’s been cleared for development. When sediment particles have settled to the bottom of the basin, the sediment-free water is then pumped from the basin into a nearby waterway.

But that’s not always the way it works, according to Samantha. The fine particles of the Triassic soils found in southeast Durham can take a very long time to settle, which can mean water pumped from the basins remains full of sediment as it enters local waterways.

“On the whole, we notice the worst turbidity two-to-three days after a rain, when they are discharging these sediment basins,” Samantha said. “It is against the law to do this, and Durham’s elected officials are letting them do it. They’re turning their backs on this pollution.”

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