News

Water Quality Specialist Taylor Register was back on the water this week for another chilly sampling run on Slocum Creek.

“Overall, today was another successful sampling day without any hiccups, so fingers crossed that’s the trend for the rest of the year,” Taylor said.

During her last trip collecting water samples as part of a yearlong project funded by a North Carolina Land and Water Fund grant and partnering with the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences, Taylor was paddling through a thin layer of ice on the way to several sites on the creek. Unlike last time, she had the assistance of her fiancé, Lucas Seijo.

“This trip I was able to convince Lucas to join me on his day off so he could get a glimpse at what some of my field days entail,” Taylor said. “I usually do my sampling trips solo, and have gotten a pretty good system down as far as packing efficiently and handling all my gear and kayak. I will say that I definitely appreciated the extra hands — it was nice to not have to carry my kayak over my head to the launch for a change, and I put him in charge of taking pictures so I could focus on my samples.”

Taylor is conducting monthly sampling at six sites along the creek, starting upstream near the Greenfield Heights Mobile Home Park, down to the end of the southwest prong before it converges with the main channel of Slocum Creek.

The project is a continuation of a 2-year investigation into Slocum Creek’s pollution — where it is coming from and why. So far, Sound Rivers has narrowed down the source to two locations just outside the City of Havelock: a home with a faulty septic system in a neighborhood off the Slocum Creek tributary, Wolf Pit Branch, and the Greenfield Heights Mobile Home Park, which also had malfunctioning septic issues. Both the Craven County and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality are now working to get issues at both sites resolved.

Sound Rivers and its partners are counting on the monthly testing of water samples for entero bacteria, nutrients and DNA source of bacteria to create a better understanding of the ongoing pollution of the creek—and if more sources are out there.

“We’re still so early on with the data-collection part of this project that it’s hard to draw any real solid conclusions yet, but I’m looking forward to sitting down in a couple of months to analyze everything and see if we can pull any major trends out,” Taylor said.

Like the work your Riverkeeping team is doing to clean up Slocum Creek? We do, too! Donate today to support their work!