merit along the way. 



Mark Sobsey of the University of 

 North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an 

 associate on the project, will track the 

 microbiological pathogens in the ef- 

 fluent flow and compile water-quality 

 data for the sites. In another Sea 

 Grant study, Sobsey has already upset 

 some long-held notiohs about "safe" 

 water. Sobsey found that the coliform 

 bacteria long thought to be reliable 

 signals of contaminated water are not 

 completely reliable. Current standards 

 for water quality, he found, do not ac- 

 curately indicate the presence of or ab- 

 sence of enteric viruses, the tiny 

 pathogens, often carried by sewage, 

 that infect people with viral hepatitis 

 and viral gastroenteritis. 



Cogger believes the results of the 

 study will supply officials with facts 

 they can apply to several of their most 

 critical problems: How much vertical 

 separation should be required from 

 drain lines to water tables? How far 

 must systems be set back from es- 

 tuaries in order to protect fishing 



Photo by Neil Caudle 



Mark Sobsey 



there? How well do the low-pressure 

 alternatives work in the sandy soils of 

 barrier islands? And, how much ef- 

 fluent flow, or density, can these soils 

 take before the effluent overcomes 

 their capacity to treat it? 



"We suspect that the twelve- 



Photo by Cassie Griffin 



Craig Cogger 



hundred-gallon number (Environmen- 

 tal Management's density guidelines) 

 errs on the side of allowing too much 

 density, if anything," Cogger says. 

 "But we just won't know for sure until 

 we have the data." 



— Neil Caudle 



Craven County: 

 A green light 



Five men are huddling together in 

 the rain to dig a hole in the sandy, side 

 lot of an abandoned store near New 

 Bern. One of them lets a fistful of 

 damp soil slide through his fingers to 

 test its composition. 



In Craven County, or most 

 anywhere else, this is where new con- 

 struction begins. Here, Joe Rose, a 

 New Bern engineer, is trying to get a 

 permit for his client, who wants to 

 renovate the empty building and open 

 a large grocery. But there are com- 

 plications. The grocer will use much 

 more water than the previous tenant; 

 there is no public sewer to the site; 

 space is limited, and the soil is not the 

 best. 



"A few years ago, we would have 

 had to turn this man down," says Al 

 Harris, sanitarian supervisor for the 

 Craven County Health Department. 

 "The soil here is not, as it is, suitable 

 for this kind of volume." 



But Harris says that innovative new 

 designs in on-site septic systems have 

 made building on marginal sites prac- 



Continued on next page 



Bob Rubin, Al Harris and Joe Rose with blueprints 



