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Water Quality Specialist Taylor Register did her routine rounds of Slocum Creek sampling this week, with a few special guests.

“I saw several pileated woodpeckers, black vultures, an osprey and a great blue heron that followed me for most of my route,” Taylor said. “Unfortunately, no alligators this month, but with the weather warming up, I’m starting to see more signs of life out on the creek, which is always my favorite thing.”

It was her third sampling run in a yearlong project to collect water samples from six sites along Havelock’s Neuse River tributary, from upstream near the Greenfield Heights Mobile Home Park to the end of the southwest prong before it converges with the main channel of Slocum Creek.

“Since I’ve already gone out and done this route multiple times, my sampling is going by a lot quicker, which allows me a bit of extra time to just enjoy being out on the water,” Taylor said. “My highlight from this month’s sampling is that it is finally starting to warm up! The past few times I’ve gone out it’s been a bit too cold for my liking, but this time I got to paddle in some gorgeous spring weather.”

While Taylor considers collecting samples via kayak a perk of her Water Quality Specialist job, the goal of her trips is to test water samples for entero bacteria levels, physical and chemical parameters with our YSI meter, nutrients and HF183, which is the DNA marker for human fecal contamination.

The testing is a continuation of a 2-year investigation into Slocum Creek’s pollution — where it was coming from and why — which was discovered in 2023 via Sound Rivers’ Swim Guide testing: Slocum Creek failed to meet recreational water quality standards during weekly testing from Memorial Day to Labor Day that year.

The yearlong sampling is funded by a North Carolina Land and Water Fund grant. Sound Rivers is partnering with the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences on the project.

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