By J eannie F ar is 



Pollution has partially or entirely 

 closed the shellfishing waters in all of 

 New Hanover County's estuarine creeks. 



But how could this have happened? 

 After all, the county is more progressive 

 than most in its strategies for protecting 

 these waters. 



It was probably nonpoint pollution. 

 The county is the second most urbanized 

 in the state with 

 124,000 people 

 living in a 

 185-square-mile 

 area. And most of 

 this growth has 

 occurred between the 

 Wilmington city 

 limits and the coast. 



But even this 

 doesn't fully explain 

 why some of the 

 county's more rural 

 creeks are closed to 

 shellfishing. Futch 

 and Howe creeks 

 were shut down, and 

 they're both in 

 pristine areas of the 

 county's sparse 

 northern reaches. 



After years of 

 simmering, the issue 

 has finally reached 

 critical mass in New 

 Hanover County, 

 says Patrick Lowe, 

 assistant director of 

 the county's planning 

 department. People 

 want some answers. 



Enter the 

 county's new 

 Estuarine Watershed 

 Management Plan, a 

 four-year effort to 

 study water quality and plan for future 

 growth. 



In August, the county launched 

 phase-one of the plan with a research 

 agreement with the University of North 

 Carolina at Wilmington Center for 

 Marine Science Research to study fecal 

 coliform and other pollutants in four 

 major tidal creeks: Howe, Bradley, 



New Hanover 



County's 

 Watershed Watch 



Tests show bacteria levels are too high in the back portion of 

 Hewletts Creek to be considered for reopening anytime soon. 

 The front section, however, holds more promise. 

 Hewletts Creek is one of the major tidal creeks in New Hanover County 

 that will be monitored for pollutants by the University of North Carolina 

 at Wilmington Center for Marine Science Research. 



Pages and Hewletts. The university will 

 also continue and incorporate the results 

 of a study in progress on Futch Creek. 



When the statistics are ready, New 

 Hanover County will have some 

 measure of the upcoming effects of 

 urbanization on these creeks and plan 

 for growth in their watersheds, Lowe 

 says. 



Futch Creek residents, however, were 

 ahead of the county in their pursuit for 

 answers. Organized as the Northeast New 

 Hanover Conservancy, they raised money 

 and contracted the water quality expertise 

 of Ronald Sizemore, head of the UNC-W 

 biology department. The report, finished in 

 April, showed that the creek is only 

 slightly polluted, with hot spots that 

 probably can be tracked and plugged. The 

 county will experi- 

 ment with dye to trace 

 leaking septic systems, 

 with retention basins 

 and with dredging to 

 improve the creek's 

 water quality. 



The conservancy 

 approached Sizemore 

 for this work on the 

 merit of his Sea Grant- 

 funded research that 

 makes molecular 

 fingerprints of fecal 

 material, which can be 

 traced back to its 

 origin. This technol- 

 ogy is used exten- 

 sively in medicine, he 

 says, and its new 

 application to environ- 

 mental science is 

 promising. 



But Sizemore 

 says he isn't certain 

 whether he will 

 continue using this 

 advanced technology 

 on the other creeks. 

 The research for New 

 Hanover County will 

 be coordinated by Jim 

 Merritt, director of the 

 UNC-W Center for 

 Marine Science 

 Research, he says. 

 "This was such a success that we're 

 trying to look at the other creeks in the 

 system to provide a countywide water 

 assessment," Sizemore says. "It's obvious 

 that we can gather a valuable product that 

 (the county and state) didn't have time to 

 get on their own and turn it over to them so 

 they can be better managers." 



COASTWATCH I 1 



