Second in a multi-part series
As Hurricane Matthew quickly turned away from the North Carolina coast on Oct. 9, it was clear that most of the storm’s damage was yet to come.
The storm had scoured beaches, raked the
Second in a multi-part series
As Hurricane Matthew quickly turned away from the North Carolina coast on Oct. 9, it was clear that most of the storm’s damage was yet to come.
The storm had scoured beaches, raked the coast with winds, rain and high water, but farther inland areas already saturated by almost two weeks of wet weather saw heavy, sometimes, record rainfall. Flash flood warnings blanketed eastern North Carolina from the immediate rainfall as a massive surge of water began making its way downriver from the Piedmont.
The storm was quickly compared to the heavy rains and flooding during 1999‘s Hurricane Floyd and, like that disaster, the prospect of widespread environmental damage rose along with the rivers.
As the floodwaters pushed through cities and towns along the river systems they inundated, stormwater and sanitary sewer systems and waste treatment plants gathered more debris and contaminants along the way. In some places, the floodwaters turned into a toxic stew that local and state public health officials warned residents to avoid.
In the farmlands of eastern North Carolina, the floods killed livestock and swept away feed, fuel, animal waste and fertilizer. Transportation was especially difficult in rural areas and made it difficult to get feed to stranded herds.
As bad as the floods were the sheer volume of water may prove to be their saving grace.
Department of Environmental Quality Assistant Secretary Tom Reeder, said DEQ’s Intensive Survey Unit has been collecting data throughout the region to determine the extent of lasting environmental issues.
“They began conducting (the survey) immediately after the hurricane subsided and they really haven’t found anything to speak of,” Reeder said. “Of course, you would expect that, the dilution was just so incredible from the storm event that any kind of SSOs (sanitary sewer overflows) or anything we would have had would be purely temporal in nature and quickly washed out into the ocean.”
During the period of Oct. 8-17, there were 270 sewer overflows associated with Matthew, a total of 183.94 million gallons spilled, according to DEQ data. Of the total spilled, 144.03 million gallons reached surface waters.
A full report of the survey of the region should be wrapped up within the month, Reeder said. “The preliminary data says that there’s nothing to be alarmed about in terms of water quality issues, post-Hurricane Matthew.”
Upper Neuse Riverkeeper Matthew Starr said he agrees about the intensity of the floodwaters, but he’s critical of the idea that things will be fine because of the contaminants were diluted.
“To me the dilution is not the important aspect of this. The important aspect of this is that we had a large amount of different types of pollution being spilled into public waterways,” he said. “We had coal ash spills. We had hog waste spills. We had inundated poultry facilities. We had municipal wastewater spills.”
Those spills will continue, Starr said, as long as the state continues policies that allow sources of pollution to be sited in floodplains and floodways.
Reeder said that, going forward, the department is trying to improve the resiliency of the state’s water and sewer infrastructure. In addition to requests for money for plant improvements and repairs in a proposed federal aid package, DEQ officials are also seeking funding for more generators and emergency equipment.
Power failures and the loss of pumping capacity led to many of the 270 reported wastewater spills during Matthew. After prompting by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, Reeder said the state recently sent in a request for federal funding for more emergency generators and infrastructure improvements for public water systems.
Agriculture: Successes and Challenges
Although there are many similarities, one of the major differences between hurricanes Floyd and Matthew was in what happened when floodwaters moved through North Carolina’s “hog country,” the belt of southeastern counties that are home to massive swine operations.
Six hog lagoons had major breaches during Floyd and 55 were flooded. About 30,000 hogs drowned. The devastation from the breaches and concerns about the safe disposal of massive numbers of animals led to a change in state policy, including a $19 million buyout program under the Clean Water Management Trust Fund to move as many hog operations as possible out of the 100-year floodplain.
The numbers for Matthew, which drove floods in Lenoir, Duplin and Wayne counties of equal or greater magnitude as Floyd, showed a fraction of the damage reported in 1999. There were breaches at two hog waste ponds and another 14 were flooded. Fewer than 3,000 hogs were lost, and those were mostly at one location.
Brian Long, spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said the buyout, which took about 40 farms and 100 lagoons out of operation, was the main reason for the di