On the narrow and delicate barrier islands, it's a case of too little soil for too many gallons 



A problem of plumbing 



The reader was troubled: He and his wife had just 

 been vacationing on one of North Carolina's barrier 

 islands. "We asked two questions while we were 

 there," he wrote. "One was, 'where does the drinking 

 water come from?' The only reply we ever heard was, 

 'out of the ground.' " 



His other question had to do with where the water 

 had gone when he was through with it. He never did 

 manage to get an answer for that one. If he had, it 

 would likely have been, "right back into the 

 ground." Or, "into the sound." 



He had happened on what may be coastal North 

 Carolina's nastiest problem. It's much more than a 

 question of bad plumbing. It's more, also, than a 

 problem of 316,858 acres of contaminated oysters 

 and clams. It's more than a threat to the purity of 

 drinking water. It's more than a stranglehold on new 

 construction. In many places, it's getting worse. 

 And, the authorities in charge can't agree on how to 

 fix it. 



There are no easy solutions to the problem of 

 sewage disposal in coastal North Carolina. The en- 

 vironment here is fragile, the desire to build and live 

 here is compelling. In this issue, Coastwatch 

 examines the question: What do we do about the 

 stuff we're flushing down our drains? 



