News

Tropical Storm Debby has long moved out of the area, but impacts from the storm’s heavy rains are still being felt.

Starting Aug. 8, the wastewater systems across the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico watersheds experienced 38 separate sewage spills, from Durham to Fairfield Harbor. Twenty-five occurred in the Tar-Pamlico watershed; 13 in the Neuse, according to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Division of Water Resources sanitary sewer overflow map.

“Most of them were concentrated around central North Carolina, as that’s where the heaviest of rainfall occurred,” said Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman. “The rivers crested earlier this week, but some areas are still in flood stages. We’ll have our Swim Guide results out again this week (Friday afternoon), but I’d definitely advise staying out of the water.”

Of particular concern this week was the Tar River at Rocky Mount. Twelve of the Tar-Pamlico’s sewage spills happened in Rocky Mount, including one at River Side Drive, where a 1.7-million-gallon spill occurred just two weeks prior to the storm.

“The last conversation I had with Division of Water Resources indicated that it’s unlikely any civil penalties will be issued for the River Side Drive spills because they were caused by ‘natural causes that could not be avoided,’ as in the rain causing inflow and infiltration (I&I),” Katey said. “They typically don’t issue penalties for overflows caused by rain. Since Rocky Mount has ongoing projects that will eventually reduce I&I, not much good will come from a civil penalty. Theoretically, they are doing things to fix the infrastructure in the meantime, such as adding new pumps, but clearly that has not helped yet.”

Katey said she has reached out to Rocky Mount city councilmembers to discuss the ongoing issue.

In the Neuse watershed, Kinston experienced a large spill during the tropical storm: a broken pipe that released 500,000 gallons of sewage into the Neuse River.

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