DATE: Thursday, September 18, 1997          TAG: 9709180496

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY LANE DeGREGORY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: MANTEO                            LENGTH:   40 lines

PRINCIPAL WATER TESTER IN DARE COUNTY RESIGNS

The Outer Banks' first full-time water tester resigned Wednesday, Dare County Manager Terry Wheeler said.

Jeff Wuilliez had headed the county's water testing program since July 1996. He sampled 11 areas of the ocean and 24 places on the sound each month.

In May, Wuilliez said he found an alarming amount of E. coli bacteria at an ocean outfall pipe in Kill Devil Hills and informed the county's Health Department.

That discovery prompted officials to close, during the Memorial Day weekend, a section of beach the length of a football field. It was the first time swimmers had been banned from any Outer Banks beach because of water pollution. The shore remained closed to swimmers for two weeks.

At the time, Wuilliez criticized members of Dare County's Clean Water Advisory Committee for dragging their feet and not addressing other potentially problematic areas.

But water committee members and Health Department Director Anne Thomas said in June that other than the Kill Devil Hills beach closure, Wuilliez had never informed them of any problem areas or waters that might have needed to be restricted for recreational uses.

On Sept. 2, Wuilliez told Thomas that he found an unacceptable level of bacteria at a test site near Stumpy Point. The health department issued an advisory the next day. But after state officials reviewed Wuilliez's data, they determined that the advisory was unnecessary and issued a retraction on Sept. 4.

Wuilliez and Thomas were unavailable for comment Wednesday night.

Wheeler said that as far as he knew, county officials did not demand that Wuilliez resign.

Dare County spokeswoman Dorothy Holt said that the water testing program, which includes a $16,000 budget and $12,000 annual allocation for the Clean Water Advisory Committee, will continue. Wuilliez earned $28,000 a year.

``That program is very valuable to us,'' she said. ``As soon as they can find a qualified person to replace him, the testing will resume.''

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