“People would be surprised how dirty the creeks are around here. It’s an ecological
disaster,” says David Jacobs, vice chair for the Cape Fear chapter of the Surfrider Foundation
and a certified instructor for ocean-friendly gardens.
High levels of bacteria from animal waste pouring into the waterways has prompted
swimming advisories in Banks Channel and forced shellfish closures in Bradley Creek
and Hewletts Creeks. The Bradley Creek and Hewletts Creek watersheds are notoriously
polluted.
“People do paddleboard out in Hewletts Creek,” John Martin says. “We kayak and
canoe on it. But I wouldn’t recommend eating shellfish out of it.”
Water quality isn’t the only thing at stake.
“Tourism and recreation revolve around water in this
area,” Harrison says. “It’s an important economic driver.
We don’t want a bunch of bacteria washing up on the
beach.”
The old way of dealing with heavy rains was to funnel water into gutters
and through downspouts to impervious surfaces like sloped driveways so it
could find its way into the drains.
“The traditional stormwater management, up until I’d say even a
decade or two ago, was let’s get all of our stormwater into drains,
into pipes, and into the creeks,” Skrabal says. “Because then our
houses don’t flood.”
Continued development on Wrightsville Beach and
Wilmington exacerbates the problem. Green spaces are
replaced with concrete, allowing for more runoff of
contaminated waters.
“Wrightsville Beach and every developed
area — the more we replace native or natural
soils and forest with areas of pavement,
the more we send polluted stormwater
that’s carrying bacteria and sediment
to our estuaries,” Skrabal says.
“That has implications for the
ecosystem. Around here,
it has really important
implications for shell-fishing
waters and
our swimming
waters.”
PHOTO BY JANE ELLISON
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