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One problem. No one ever clarified what evidence the county's environmental hygienists would collect, after which spills they would collect it, or what they would do with it. The level of communication is so bad, in fact, that most of the middle and lower level environmental staff members CL spoke to -- the folks on the ground investigating and documenting these spills -- were unaware of the existence, much less the importance of the enforcement guidelines that are supposed to govern the job they perform. That creates a situation akin to traffic cops being asked to do their jobs without ever having learned state driving laws.
John McCulloch, one of three water quality supervisors at MCWQP, said he was unfamiliar with the water quality guidelines when asked about them by CL. Without a working knowledge of the guidelines which the county has agreed to help the state enforce, county environmental hygienists investigating these spills wouldn't know what evidence would be needed to recommend a fine for a spiller, or the importance of documenting the damage done by the spills.
How it's supposed to work
Spill analysis is simple enough that your average sixth grader could learn to do it. One of the surest signs that a large sewage spill has overwhelmed the waters it flows through is a lowered level of dissolved oxygen in the water.
Low levels of dissolved oxygen can indicate the presence of significant amounts of fecal coliform bacteria, which is host to the dangerous pathogens that travel in feces. If a water test indicates less than 5.0 mg/liter of dissolved oxygen -- as it did in the case of the Morning Dale Drive spill that ran through Patrick Carrigan's backyard -- it indicates the need for a fecal coliform test. Without one, there's no way to tell how much bacteria might be in the water. Water with large amounts of fecal coliform in it -- more than 200 colonies per 100 milliliters of water -- is considered unsafe for swimming and is not recommended for human contact.
A downstream water test, taken by county environmental hygienists the day after the Morning Dale Drive spill, showed that the dissolved oxygen level in McAlpine Creek violated state water quality standards for dissolved oxygen. A fecal test could have told investigators, and ultimately surrounding residents, just how unsafe that water was. But, as in the case of nearly all the big spills CL has analyzed, no fecal test was conducted, and the dissolved oxygen violation recorded by the county environmentalist brought about no fine, and no further attention.
And that's where the problem lies. While county environmental officials are required to collect data to document that a spill has occurred, and make the case for a fine or other punishment, the state doesn't require that MCWQP actually perform any particular test on fouled streams and creeks, or any tests at all for that matter. Of course, how they would be able to document that a spill has occurred and make the case for a fine without testing the water is a mystery. Although MCWQP isn't required by the state to test the water, it seems a reasonable expectation that the organization specifically paid by the county to oversee our water quality would take it upon itself to test the water after sewage spills. In deciding not to collect evidence, the county fails to do its enforcement job and lets polluters off the hook.
While it is not MCWQP's job to issue violation notices -- that falls to the state -- it is the county department's job to track what happens to their reports and forward them to NCDENR's regional office with a letter or other notice reporting water quality damage and suggesting a fine.
When CL interviewed him, Rusty Rozzelle, program manager for water quality with MCWQP, wasn't sure what had happened after his department wrote up the spill report on the Morning Dale Drive spill.
"I don't know whether any report followed regarding notice of violation," said Rozzelle. "If it was not noted in this report, there must not have been any notice of violation issued."
Rozzelle said that ultimately, the decision on whether water quality enforcers will test after a spill is up to Regional Water Quality Division Supervisor Rex Gleason in the NCDENR Mooresville office. But the enforcement agreement between the state and the county reads differently. It plainly says that MCWQP is responsible for collecting necessary evidence for legal action against the spillers and forwarding it to the state.
