Land along the Neuse River was being used as a dumping ground for construction materials, but that has been stopped after intervention by Sound Rivers and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.
Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop said Sound Rivers received several reports recently about a landowner in Bridgeton dumping construction materials on the property, some of it making its way into the buffer along the river
“It looks from their photos as if the landowner had been dumping a significant amount of construction material in and around the Neuse River on their property, including in the riparian buffer corridor and in an area of environmental concern," she explained.
The owner also appeared to have been piling the debris into the low-lying wetlands on the property, then filling over it with dirt in an attempt to level out the land and eventually build on top of it.
Krop said, “Department of Environmental Quality officials were able to determine that not only was there dumping in and along the river, but what looks like earth moving and impacts to this area of environmental concern, which is probably a wetland community along that along that buffer.”
Krop and Water Quality Specialist Taylor Register discovered that permits were not issued and they contacted the DEQ; the Division of Coastal Management did determine that it appeared the owner was trying to develop an “area of environmental concern” without a CAMA permit.
The DEQ has ordered the property owner to cease all development activities until further notice; Krop said, "That's a swift action on behalf of regulators, and it really reflects the severity of this particular issue.”
Illegal dumping like this is more than an eyesore; Krop said activities like that can have an impact on the overall health of the river and cause other problems downstream.
“Protecting our waterways and our vegetated buffers along our waterways is really the best thing that we can do to protect water from pollution and also to stop flood impacts, and so when people impact those buffers they're worsening downstream flooding and they're also worsening water quality," Krop said, "There's a reason we have these protections in place.”
A neighbor initially reported the dumping, and Krop is encouraging others to do the same when they see a possible water quality issue. That can be done by calling the Sound Rivers office or a filling out a form on their website.
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