THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 7, 1996 TAG: 9610070073
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: 102 lines
With a plastic bottle, 6-foot stick and the most modern monitoring equipment available, Jeff Wuilliez is trying to make sure the coast is clear.
He spends five days a month taking water samples from the sound and sea surrounding Dare County. He measures salinity, temperature and a variety of contaminants. He's working to determine the quality of the area's surface water and identify any danger zones that might be polluted by fuel, wastewater discharge or farm run-off.
State officials say the program Wuilliez heads is one of the most progressive and proactive in North Carolina.
``I don't know of any other coastal community that's doing this type of work on their water,'' state Division of Environmental Management spokesman Jay Sauber said Friday from his Raleigh office. ``It's really an innovative, encouraging, ongoing study that can affect land use and planning in the local area.
``I applaud the initiative.''
Sponsored by Dare County's Clean Water Advisory Committee, the surface water monitoring program started about a year ago when a group of volunteers began testing 10 sample sites along both shores of the Outer Banks. Committee members hired Wuilliez as the program's only full-time employee in July. Since then, he has expanded the number of sample sites to 17, and included a much more advanced analysis of the area's water quality.
So far, Wuilliez said, he doesn't have any conclusive results about where the most contaminated areas of water are - or what might be causing problems. Overall, Dare County has a higher quality of water than many coastal communities, he said. The baseline data he's collecting now could help planners regulate future development.
``We certainly don't want our water quality to deteriorate,'' said Joe Lassiter, an environmental scientist who serves on Dare County's Clean Water Advisory Committee. ``So we started this proactive program instead of waiting to react to obvious problems. We want to present the planning board with our data to help them make decisions about how to proceed with development.
``Our goal is to identify management strategies for each individual drainage area in the county and an overall plan for Dare County.''
County coffers pay Wuilliez's $28,000 annual salary. Local tax dollars fund the program's $16,000 budget and the committee's $12,000 yearly allocation. But because state - not county - officials are in charge of water issues, Wuilliez cannot control water pollution problems if he finds them. He can only report them to Division of Environmental Management experts. State officials follow up on any information Wuilliez might discover.
``We have very limited state resources for water testing in individual areas,'' Sauber said. ``With local governments investing in collecting water data, we will be able to expand our information base significantly. We'll make sure to share that information with state health officials, if necessary, so that proper procedures can be followed.''
The amount of development that has occurred on the Outer Banks during the past decade has significantly affected Dare County's water quality, Wuilliez said. Most water production plants and wastewater discharge plants emit acceptable levels of contaminants. But, the biologist said, just because those numbers meet state standards, they aren't necessarily safe for other organisms.
``Even if the water discharged from those plants is clean, it might not be the same as the rest of the sound water,'' Wuilliez said. ``It might not be good for the plants and aquatic animals. That's one thing we're trying to determine.''
Because Wuilliez doesn't have a boat - and his sample collection equipment can only access areas about 3 feet deep - he is somewhat limited in his ability to determine areas of ``dead water'' where oxygen levels are too low to support aquatic plants and animals.
Nevertheless, Clean Water Advisory Committee Chairman Damon Tatem said the biologist will respond to public calls for help discovering why crabs are dying in a certain area or what might be causing a certain spot on the sound to smell.
Wuilliez agreed. He's not an environmental policeman, he said, but he's willing to check out any area of his watery territory.
``We select sites depending on what's out there: sewage treatment plants, stormwater run-off drains, public docks. Any place I think might be problematic,'' Wuilliez said Thursday while scooping water from beside the 600-foot soundside pier at the Villas subdivision in Nags Head.
``I record observational data on site: wind direction, water temperature, etc. Then I take the sample back to Kill Devil Hills' reverse-osmosis plant to do bacteriological and chemical analyses. I hope to expand the number of test sites to 50 by next summer.''
So far, sites range from the Army Corps of Engineers research pier on the ocean in Duck to the old swimming hole near the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island to the ferry repair park in Manns Harbor to Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park to the breakwater harbor in Hatteras Village.
Most of the test areas are public access points. And Wuilliez said he's only had a few problems from people wondering what he's doing. ``A lot of people are inquisitive at first. I've had some resistance from people at certain sites,'' he said. ``But once I explain why I'm out there, they seem to appreciate the effort.''
By next summer, Wuilliez and committee members hope to report their initial findings to the Dare County Board of Commissioners.
``We're not trying to find bad guys,'' Lassiter said. ``We're just trying to find out what's in our water. We're trying to help.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
DREW C. WILSON
The Virginian-Pilot
Dare County's water tester, Jeff Wuilliez, takes a sample from
Roanoke SOund. Although the ocunty cannot regulate water quality,
Wuilliez can report problems to state environmental officials. by CNB