News

Tropical Storm Debby unleashed a torrent of rain, and a torrent of sewage, across the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico in August.

More than 40 sewage spills occurred across both watersheds, but one town stood out in shear numbers. Rocky Mount had a 14 separate spills, totaling 1, 178,625 million gallons of sewage.

Sewage spills occurred at:

Harper Street — 3,600 gallons

Cherry Street/Cowlick Branch —54,375 gallons

Barnum Road — 180,000 gallons

East Raleigh Boulevard/Cowlick Branch — 267,000 gallons

Riverside Drive (2)  — 72,000 gallons; 168,000 gallons

Battleboro Lift Station/Swift Creek — 500 gallons

Maple Creek Drive/Maple Swamp — 6,600 gallons

East Holly Street/Cowlick Branch —162,000 gallons

Postal Drive — 4,800 gallons

Airport Road/HornBeam Swamp — 24,000 gallons

Branch Street — 98,000 gallons

Tyan Street — 98,250 gallons

Hill Street/Cowlick Branch —39,500 gallons

(The receiving body of water of the spills was the Tar River, unless the waterbody is noted above.)

In July, Riverside Drive was the site of back-to-back sewage spills: 42,000 gallons one day, followed by a 1.7-million-gallon spill that started the next and lasted three days. Over the last four years, more than 4 million gallons of sewage spilled at the site has flowed from a manhole in the street into stormwater drains that empty into the Tar River, right next to a park.

On the Neuse, the largest spill during Tropical Storm Debby occurred in Kinston when a broken pipe released 500,000 gallons of sewage into the Neuse River.

Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman has been collecting data on Rocky Mount’s ongoing spills and investigating what can be done about enforcement of water-quality regulations and what feasible options there may be to mitigate impacts to the river.

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