All sites tested for Swim Guide on the lower Neuse this week met recreational water-quality standards, even one that has been plagued with pollution all summer: Slocum Creek in Havelock.
“Our thoughts are that it passed, likely due to the recent lack of rain. Even with passing numbers, it was still our highest result this week, and the rest of our lower Neuse sites also came back lower than usual — a trend we tend to see with periods of very dry weather like we’ve had this week,” said Sound Rivers’ Water Quality Specialist Taylor Register. “It’s relieving to finally see a passing result for Slocum Creek, but I would be hesitant to say that the issue is clearing up, especially since we tested another part of the creek this week, and that one came back as failing.”
The Town of Havelock is currently under a Special Order of Consent with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and has a deadline of January 2024 to fix its sewage infrastructure issues. Though the results of a DNA test returned this week to Sound Rivers point to a human source of the fecal bacteria in the creek, how it’s getting into the waterway is still being determined.
Slocum Creek is the only water access open to the public in the Havelock area. The risks associated with recreating in water with elevated levels of fecal bacteria are gastrointestinal illness and skin infections for both pets and humans.
Swim Guide is an international water-quality program conducted locally by Sound Rivers, an environmental nonprofit based in Raleigh, New Bern and Washington with a mission to keep North Carolina’s waterways fishable, swimmable and drinkable.
Each week, a team of Sound Rivers’ volunteers gathers water samples at 54 popular recreation sites from the Piedmont to the Pamlico Sound. Sound Rivers’ staff test samples for E. coli in fresh water and enterococci in salt water and pass/fail results are released to the public, providing an easy way to find out where it’s safe to swim.
Seventeen of the 54 sites are located in the lower Neuse River basin: Oak Bluff Road and Highway 11 boat ramp near Kinston; Core Creek Landing at Fort Barnwell; Cowpen Landing and Spring Garden boat ramps; Glenburnie Park, Town of Bridgeton Park, Black Beard Sailing Club on upper Broad Creek, Lawson Creek Park, River Bend kayak launch, Trent Woods and Brice’s Creek — all in or near New Bern; the East Street boat ramp in Pollocksville; Slocum Creek boat ramp in Havelock; Rice Creek off the Bay River; and the Midyette Street boat ramp and Sea Harbour Yacht Club at Pierce Creek in Oriental.
Sound Rivers’ Swim Guide program is sponsored by the Water-Quality Fund in memory of Gene Pate, Grady-White Boats, Public Radio East, Cummins, UNC Lenoir Health Care, the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Program, Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, UNC Pavel Molchanov Scholars, ECU SECU Public Fellows Internship Foundation, City of Greenville, Lake Royale Property Owners Association, Melinda Vann and David Silberstein, and Wendy and Tim Wilson.
To sign up for Swim Guide notifications, go to soundrivers.org/swimguide or text “SWIM” to 33222 for weekly water-quality text updates. For more information about Sound Rivers, visit soundrivers.org.
By Sound Rivers