News

Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman and water-quality intern Eloise MacLean teamed up for a visit to the upper Tar River basin last Friday.

The issue: turbidity in Cub Creek.

“Eloise and I sampled sites on multiple different creeks, and every site exceeded the state standard,” Katey said. “Only one did not, and that one is upstream of where we believe the pollution is coming from.”

The suspected source is the Republic Services’ Upper Piedmont Landfill in Rougemont.

“Everything that was downstream of the landfill had really high turbidity,” she said. “The highest was closest to the landfill at 208 NTU — so about five times higher than the state standard.”

Turbidity is a measurement clarity, or the amount light able to penetrate a water column. Fifty NTU is the state standard.

The muddied waters of Cub Creek were first reported to Sound Rivers in September 2023. In October of 2023, an inspection of the site by North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources resulted in the site manager saying the turbidity was not coming from Republic’s sediment basins, according to Katey.

However, in March, the facility was issued a permit to construct four new cells in the landfill, for which the company would have to clear land and disrupt sediment during the construction process, she said.

“I suspect they have started this construction — though we haven’t received confirmation on that — and that’s been contributing to the elevated sediment pollution in Cub Creek,” Katey said. “I’ve compiled all that data and information from our sampling and sent it to DEMLR with our findings … and I’ve reiterated our requests for another site inspection.”

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