03-28-08: Scientist stresses importance of Neuse monitoring

New Bern -- A marine scientist says a program that monitors water quality is helping the state protect the Neuse River.

The scientist, professor Hans Paerl of the University of North Carolina's Marine Sciences Institute in Morehead City, explained the monitoring system at a meeting in New Bern on Thursday night. He spoke to Eastern North Carolina leaders to garner more support for the program.

Paerl helped develop the program in the early 1990s, along with scientists from Duke, East Carolina and N.C. State. Paerl said the program, called MODMON for "modified monitor," is used to modify and monitor nitrogen levels in the Neuse.

"The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has a program that monitors quality once a month," Paerl said. "MODMON puts data together every two weeks to fill in the gaps and let the state assess how we are improving water quality. Tonight's purpose is to show these folks how the system works and to show how nitrogen dischargers are doing."

Some of those dischargers are cities and towns, including New Bern, along the river. They are organized in nonprofit groups called the Neuse River Compliance Association and the Lower Neuse Basin Association.

Members of the associations fund half of the water-monitoring program. Association representatives from New Bern, Havelock, Farmville, Goldsboro, Kinston, Raleigh and other cities went to the Riverfront Convention Center on Thursday to hear Paerl's speech.

"I grew up in New Bern and love the river," said Tom Bayliss, mayor of New Bern. "I never really appreciated what we have with the river until I became mayor.

"We have limited resources to take care of it, so we need the scientists and the work they do. And if you're still chunking things in the river then stop it, because Mister Paerl and the others are going to know about it."

The state funds the other half of the program, said Haywood Phthisic, who works with wastewater treatment in Johnston County. Phthisic is the volunteer president of the compliance and basin associations.

"Our common goal is to reduce nitrogen in the river from wastewater plants," he said. "Plants are the point sources for wastewater discharge into the river. We can quantify how much we are putting in. Nonpoint sources cannot. That's where Hans comes in."

Paerl said 80 percent of nitrogen going into the river is from rainfall, from people who use fertilizer on plants and from private farms, all things that cities do not keep track of. He said the water-monitoring program is a way to keep track of those wastewater sources.

"All of the members of the Neuse River Compliance Association and the Lower Neuse Basin Association are not under the amount of nitrogen that they can discharge," Phthisic said. "But the group as a whole has been way under that amount."

Paerl said the university-developed monitoring system is now looking at how climate changes, including droughts and hurricanes, are affecting the Neuse River.

"But the program is important for the times between those climate crises," he said. "We get a lot of support and questions about the quality of the water during those times. The key is getting support during those nonsexy times. That's why we are here tonight."