"Jumping Run is a fairly normal 

 creek," says North Carolina Sea Grant 

 water quality specialist Barbara Doll. 

 "Creeks are this bad up and down the 

 North Carolina coast." 



Since 1998, Doll has been working 

 with the Jumping Run Creek Shellfish 

 Restoration Project, an effort to reduce 

 bacteria in the stream and reopen shellfish 

 beds. 



Project collaborators include the N.C. 

 Cooperative Extension Service, several 

 departments and schools from NC State 

 University, the Shellfish Sanitation Section 

 of the N.C. Division of Environmental 

 Health, Duke University Marine Lab and 

 the Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative 

 (CCEC). Funds from a wide variety of 

 sources, including the U.S. Environmental 

 Protection Agency, the N.C. Wetland 

 Restoration Program and the Clean Water 

 Management Trust Fund, allow the 

 collaborators to work on sites throughout 

 the watershed. 



By bringing together universities and 

 government agencies, the project gains 

 expertise, Doll says. While North Carolina 

 Sea Grant and Duke University provide 

 information about the coastal resources, 

 and NC State extension leaders help with 

 monitoring and land-use planning, 

 Shellfish Sanitation "grasps where else this 

 project could be applied," she says. "They 

 know how much rain it takes to close a 

 shellfish bed. They are out there in the field 

 every day." 



The Roots of the Problem 



Compared to many urban areas, the 

 watershed of Jumping Run Creek has only 

 moderate development. Only 5 percent of 

 the watershed's surfaces are impermeable 

 to water, including parking lots, roads and 

 rooftops. But the landscape is still far 

 different than it used to be. 



Years ago, Jumping Run wound 

 through a pocosin forest or upland swamp, 

 says Nancy White, extension associate 

 professor and program leader at the NC 

 State School of Design, who heads 

 monitoring efforts on the creek. Spongy 

 soils slowed the flow of water, but proved 



too soggy to permit much development. 

 The solution? Widespread ditching. 



Like much of eastern North Carolina, 

 the community along the banks of Jumping 

 Run relies on drainage canals to speed 

 runoff and prevent flooding. Straight 

 ditches delineate the edges of fields and 

 businesses, replacing wetlands and the 

 gentle meanders of the stream's natural 

 tributaries. 



Unfortunately, the rapid drainage that 

 is so convenient for property owners also 

 has drawbacks. Where bacteria-laden water 

 once filtered slowly through the pocosin' s 

 damp soils, giving the bacteria time to die 

 off, it now flows directly into the creek. 

 Bacteria from human and animal waste can 

 flush from septic tanks and back yards to 

 the mouth of the creek in a matter of hours, 

 and when storms scour the landscape, even 

 more bacteria flood the waterway. 



The Shellfish Sanitation Section closes 

 the shellfish beds to prevent humans from 



TOP: J.D. Potts of the Shellfish Sanitation Section monitors water 

 from a tributary to Jumping Run Creek. 

 CENTER: Potts watches runoff from Highway 24 flowing to Jumping Run. 

 BOTTOM: Eugene Clayborne, CCEC executive vice president and general manager, 



stands at the site of a future stormwater wetland. 



20 HOLIDAY 1999 



