Onslow County is rather unique, particularly for a coastal county, in that no water enters from another county. Onslow's New River (as opposed to the other New River in the northwestern portion of the state) begins and ends within Onslow. Water in the western portion of Onslow flows west toward the Cape Fear River. Water in the eastern portion of Onslow flows east toward the White Oak River. The remainder of the county supplies water to the New River. (See figure above.)

In 1999, the Onslow County Commissioners, with the aid of Senator Charlie Albertson, obtained $50,000 in funds to support an Onslow County Water Quality Study. This study had the following objectives:

Establish a 1-year water quality testing program in Onslow County to recognize the importance of improving all the waters in Onslow for the safety, health, and economic welfare of its citizens.

Determine what shellfishing, fishing, and anadromous fish spawning areas are impacted by fecal coliform, copper, arsenic, ammonia, and other pollutants.

Augment the efforts of NC Shellfish Sanitation and others to identify and possibly eliminate sources of pollution to County waters.

Inform area fishermen and residents of the results, how it impacts them, and what can be done to correct situations.

Develop specific recommendations for managing and maintaining the recreational and commercial uses of Onslow County waterways.

A local committee comprised of researchers, Health Department personnel, environmental groups, and others selected the initial sampling sites. Currently, there are 25 active monitoring sites (see red circles in the figure below). These sites cover most of the New River and White Oak sub-basins within Onslow and include a variety of land uses (e.g., agriculture, forestry, fishing/recreation, urban/residential). Sampling was begun at some of the sites during 1999. Sampling at all of the sites began in April 2000 and was to continue until at least March 2001. Prudent use of funds allowed the project to continue through June 2002. Since then, the County Commissioners have decided to continue the project each year.

The lastest report to the Commissioners (08/15/05) is currently available as a PDF file. Sampling site locations and GPS images are also available.

There is only one USGS river gaging station on the New River, and it is located on Northwest Bridge Rd. Stream depths and velocity measurements are being collected from several of the sampling sites, so flow profiles can be generated. Once the flows are known, the relative contributions of nutrients and other compounds by each stream can be evaluated.

Samples are currently being analyzed for temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, fecal coliform, nitrate-Nitrogen, ammonia-Nitrogen, ortho-phosphate Phosphorus, iron, and aluminum.

The data has been very good, and a request will be made to DENR to have several portions of the New River reclassified from SC (secondary contact) to SB (primary contact). A description of the State's classification system is available at http://mro.enr.state.nc.us/gw/2b.htm. The following map shows the current classifications for the New River:

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Questions?

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/onslow/staff/drashash/enved/OnslowWQ.html