Massive pollution of N.C. waterways results in `Pfiesteria hysteria'

Last spring I took my daughters on a weekend trip to Camp Sea Gull, a YMCA camp on the Neuse River. We heard that it might not be safe to swim in the river due to hog farm lagoon spills upstream, and I had read that the state government attributed massive fish kills in the area throughout the previous two years to low oxygen content in the water related to an oversupply of nutrients from pollution of that type.

Then this summer I read "And the Waters Turned to Blood" by Rodney Barker and got an education-albeit a sensationalistic one-in environmental politics. The waters in North Carolina weren't actually turning red-a biblical reference alluding to "red tides" caused by toxic algae. No, the newly discovered Pfiesteria piscicida organism, now thought to account for about 30 percent of fish kills on the East Coast, was not quite as contagious or rapidly fatal as the Ebola virus.

The book tells the story of JoAnn Burkholder, a researcher in aquatic botany at North Carolina State University, and her serendipitous discovery of an unusual dinoflagellate that kills fish in polluted waters through immunosuppression and the production of a neurotoxin. The action takes place between here and the coast, and it reads like an Oliver Stone screenplay complete with government conspiracy theories.

At the least, it makes an interesting scientific detective tale with a new and potentially important discovery by an obscure researcher meeting resistance from the scientific establishment. The plot rapidly transforms, however, into one of political intrigue as it takes on the most controversial topic in the state-the water quality of our rivers.

Throw in allegations of environmental mismanagement by the North Carolina Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources, anecdotal reports of human illness attributed to neurotoxin exposure and a few anonymous death threats directed at Burkholder, and you have a full blown case of "Pfiesteria hysteria." The complaints of short-term memory loss and other neurologic symptoms by laboratory workers-including Burkholder herself-and fishermen exposed to Pfiesteria were made more credible by the fact that Duke environmental toxicologist Ed Levin has demonstrated significant learning deficits in laboratory rats exposed to Pfiesteria.

This controversy is part of a larger ongoing debate about water pollution involving many vested interests in the state, such as the fishing and tourism industries, agri-chemical companies, chicken and hog farmers and real estate developers. Undesirable national publicity came last year in a series of Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reports by The News & Observer of Raleigh on the hog industry and a 60 Minutes report titled "Pork Power." This prime-time feature described the hog lagoons as "leaking cesspools" and pointed out the irony of U.S. Senator Lauch Faircloth's multimillion-dollar investments in hog farming.

The hog industry was quick to counterattack by pointing the finger at developers and community sewage systems. Ironically in recent months, there have been four major sewage spills into Triangle waterways to highlight the problems with rapid population growth in the state. To quote that master of Southern wisdom, Pogo, "We have met the enemy, and they is us."

In the latest developments, Jonathan Howes, the Secretary of the Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources recently stepped down and was replaced by Wayne McDevitt, a trusted aide of N.C. Governor Jim Hunt. The state legislature just passed a law putting a two-year moratorium on building hog farms, limiting nitrogen and phosphorus output from city sewage systems and requiring the development of management plans for the 17 major river basins in the state.