Patience Rays Off: 



RelJm 

 ^ of the 

 Chowan 

 ver 

 ives 

 ope 

 rthe 

 euse 



By Barbara A. Doll and 

 Renee Wolcott Shannon 



T 



Ihesi 



Anabaena, a microscopic blue-green algae 

 of the kind that plagued the Chowan River 



Ihese days, the Neuse River 

 dominates media coverage of water quality 

 issues. Headlines scream about Pfiesteria 

 piscicida, excessive nutrients and fish kills. 

 Mention of the Chowan River is pretty 

 infrequent, even among water quality 

 professionals. But the Chowan River is 

 where North Carolina began its fight 

 against excess nutrient pollution. 



The Chowan River begins in south- 

 eastern Virginia at the confluence of the 

 Nottaway and Blackwater rivers. Three- 

 quarters of its 4,890-square-mile drainage 

 area lie in Virginia. The river flows south- 

 east to Edenton, where it pours more than 1 

 trillion gallons of fresh water into 

 Albemarle Sound every year. 



But in the 1970s, severe algal blooms, 



fish kills and fish disease in the Chowan 

 River catalyzed local volunteer efforts and 

 landmark research and regulatory action in 

 North Carolina. The state passed its first 

 laws for controlling the discharge of 

 nutrients in an attempt to curtail the envi- 

 ronmental damage. In May 1979, the 

 Environmental Management Commission 

 established the Nutrient Sensitive Water 

 (NSW) supplemental-use classification to 

 place nutrient limits on wastewater plant 

 discharges to rivers. The Chowan River 

 was the first river to receive this supple- 

 mental classification. 



Nutrients are essential to river and 

 coastal estuarine ecosystems; they feed the 

 growth of phytoplankton, forming the base 

 of the food chain. But in excess they can 



18 SPRING 1999 



