Havelock officials and members from Sound Rivers addressed the health of Slocum Creek and recent wastewater spills at a public event last night. The event held at the Havelock Tourism & Event Center was the latest of the city's monthly "listening sessions," in which city officials field questions from residents on a chosen topic.
This listening session comes after a series of failed water quality tests this summer and several spills and overflows. The nonprofit environmental organization Sound Rivers began looking into potential sources of contamination in the fall. Slocum Creek, specifically the Southwest Prong, failed 11 out of 13 weekly swim guide tests. Those tests measure for safe levels of bacteria set by the EPA for swimming and recreation.
The problem is unique to Slocum Creek, says Samantha Krop with Sound Rivers, which tests several sites along the Neuse River. Krop said the creek routinely exceeds safe bacteria levels, unlike other downstream sites. In comparison, Midyette Creek in Oriental passed 10 of 13 tests and Lawson Creek in New Bern passed 12 out of 13.
Given consistently high levels of bacteria, Krop began looking into the source. Late last year, she concluded the contamination was exclusively from human fecal matter. After testing several sites, Sound Rivers pinpointed the source in and around Wolf Creek Branch upstream, an area outside of Havelock with homes that use septic systems.
"Our samples are indicating that there's a significant input of bacteria coming from Wolf Pit Branch," Krop said. "Working with the city, we were able to establish that the most likely source for that is outdated septic systems."
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Though that area is not within the city, Havelock officials acknowledged the public health issue it causes last night. Public Utilities Director Rick Day said harmful algal blooms in the creek have caused life-threatening infections in people whose open wounds have made contact with the water, and that the water poses risks to wildlife that drink it.
Krop advised the audience to repair and maintain their septic systems if they have one and that Sound Rivers can help homeowners locate grant funding to make those repairs. She also asked for people to call her organization if they spot discolored water and other suspicious sights.
Though the likely source of continued contamination is outside of the city's purview, the situation has renewed attention to Havelock's ongoing sewer complications. For years the city has undergone expensive projects to update and repair its outdated sewer infrastructure. But a series of recent spills show there is still much work to be done.
In January, an historic 500,000 gallons of raw sewage spilled from a broken valve at the city's wastewater treatment plant. The pipe in question was supposedly no longer in operation and the sewage made its way into Slocum Creek.
"This was a line that we didn't even know was back there. It was supposed to be abandoned," Mayor Will Lewis said. "It ruptured underground. Nobody knew until it came out."
Lewis added the spill cost $1 per gallon and a week of work to clean up. A day later another spill occurred. That time, an overflow at a manhole on East Main Street.
For the past decade or so, the city has spent millions to upgrade and repair its stormwater, sewer and water infrastructure. Perhaps the one with the biggest impact is an $11 million project to reroute treated wastewater from Slocum Creek to the Neuse River. The city spent $6 million out of pocket and financed the rest through a USDA low-interest loan in 2014. The city is still making payments on that loan. That project did help clean up Slocum Creek. According to local fishermen, bass have reinhabited portions of the stream.
Lewis and Day said the city's approach has largely been reactive and piecemeal. Projects arise as problems arise. The whack-a-mole approach and constant attention required has left the mayor exasperated though still dedicated.
"I would put my hand on a bible and say I don't know what else we could be doing and I would not be lying to say that. We've done everything engineers told us to do. We've spent a ton of money, a lot of resources, a lot of manpower. We do things other municipalities don't have to do because of the situation we're in," Mayor Lewis said. "I just want to make that really clear in case people are thinking the City of Havelock doesn't care."
Most spills and overflows occur after rainfall events, and the city has contractors on call to quickly respond.
One of the major issues the city suffers from is a lack of knowledge about the system itself, specifically where pipes are located and what they're made of. Day and Lewis said on several occasions the city has relied on inaccurate plans from developers to locate pipes in need of repair -- only to find out the pipe is several feet away. In one case, the records on file for one development is a collection of napkins, according to the mayor.
"It was the wild west in Havelock for pipe laying," Lewis said about developments built 50-60 years ago.
Soon, Havelock will begin a project to completely map the city's water and sewer infrastructure. Lewis said it'll be a multi-year project with an uncertain timeline and that it will allow the city to be more proactive. The city has already bought equipment (ground penetrating radars and cameras to explore pipes) for the project but is waiting for the greenlight from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a partner on the project.
The city has worked with the state for decades to identify necessary projects. In 2004, Havelock and NCDEQ entered into a special order by consent following repeated discharges into Slocum Creek that exceeded the city's permit. That order expired in 2007.
Again in 2020, the city entered into another special order by consent with NCDEQ that mandated a certain timeline for repairs and upgrades. In its 2020-21 wastewater report, the most recent available, the city said most mandated repairs have been made, including replacing pipes along Speight Street and Shepard Street. The city completed a study to identify repairs from Hollywood Boulevard to the Wastewater Treatment Plant. The city had until January 1 to finish all repairs.
It's important to note that the sites of the most recent spills were not included in either of the SOCs, reemphasizing the unpredictable and whack-a-mole nature of the problem.
