There doesn't seem to be any easy answer' 



(Continued from p. 1) 



Surf City and Topsail Beach, for instance, prob- 

 lems of sewage disposal have reached critical 

 stages. In these areas, poor soil conditions for 

 septic tanks are coupled with a high water table. 

 That creates the potential for effluent and drinking 

 water to become mixed. 



New and more stringent septic tank regulations 

 were passed for Pender County last November in 

 an effort to curtail contamination of nearby shell- 

 fish waters. Other coastal counties will have to 

 comply with new statewide septic tank regulations 

 which go into effect in July. But Pender County 

 sanitarian Penny Whiteside believes the county 

 regulation is only a temporary solution. "There 

 just doesn't seem to be any easy answer to any of 

 it," he said. 



Everette Knight, director of the Division of En- 

 vironmental Management within the Department 

 of Natural and Economic Resources, is familiar 

 with Pender County's problems. "There is sewage 

 coming out on top of the ground. And there is 

 contamination of the shellfishing areas to the 

 extent that they are being closed," he said. 



Ocean sewage outfalls are now being seriously 

 considered for the North Carolina coast for the 

 first time. But the outfall concept is not a new one. 

 Publicly owned outfalls are used all over the world 

 — extensively in Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand 

 and parts of Europe. Municipal outfalls for domes- 

 tic waste dot the West coast of the United States. 

 In southern California alone, five huge outfalls 

 produce a discharge of nearly one billion gallons 

 of sewage effluent each day. On the East coast, 

 outfalls operate in Rhode Island, New York, New 

 Jersey, Maryland and Virginia. Ocean disposal 

 (sometimes of raw sewage) has been used on the 

 Florida coast for years. 



Until recently the EPA took a hard line against 

 outfalls as a solution to waste disposal problems. 

 North Carolina law still prohibits construction of 



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ocean outfalls without the permission of the Divi- 

 sion for Environmental Management. But, in a 

 softening of attitude, director Everette Knight now 

 endorses outfall research. "I think it's inappropri- 

 ate to throw away any option that might work," he 

 said. 



But Knight believes that there are still many 

 questions to be answered before any outfalls are 

 actually constructed on the coast. A clearer un- 

 derstanding of the circulation patterns off the 

 coast is needed to determine the destination of 

 the sewage effluent once it is discharged into the 

 ocean. Planners also want to know what effect the 

 outfall discharge will have on marine life, commer- 

 cial fishing and public health. 



Debate on the subject of outfalls isn't limited to 

 the hallowed halls of academia. It is an emotion- 

 ally charged issue. Many coastal residents know 

 of the problems created by outfalls operating in 

 other states. Sewage effluent or sludge has washed 

 ashore on many of the East coast's beaches. 



Lucille Gore, mayor of Surf City, is one of those 

 who is wary of the potential destructive power of 

 outfalls. "The average individual is against it," 

 she observed. "Lots of people around here are from 

 other places, where they have seen dirty beaches. 



Yet in the neighboring town of Topsail Beach, 

 town councilman Mike Boryk expresses different 

 views. "Our feeling here is that we ought to go to 

 ocean outfall. The land surrounding us is not suit- 

 able for land disposal," he said. 



In Dare County, sanitarian Joe Stokes contends 

 that an outfall would be "like a spit in the ocean." 

 Preliminary hearings have already been held on a 

 proposed ocean outfall in his county. But Stokes 

 expects a hew and cry from some local citizens 

 once the plans are further developed. "I'm afraid 

 we're going to have a mental block about the sew- 

 age going into the ocean," he said. 



