Can Science Save Coastal Development?
Nicholas School Faculty Members Play Key Roles in Documenting Threats and Offering Ways to Avoid Them p.3
William Kirby-Smith, associate professor of the practice of marine ecology, has spent more than 30 years examining the effects of nutrient runoff on estuaries in North Carolina. Some of his work has focused on the impact of the massive (40,000-acre) Open Grounds Farm, which drains into the Neuse River and adjoining estuaries.
“Any place where people come in and alter the landscape for any purpose, the adjacent shellfish waters suffer,” Kirby-Smith says. “When you drain the land, coliform bacteria is transmitted in surface runoff to the estuaries before it can die off. The state is then forced to close these waters for shellfishing, because of the potential for human illness.”
In central North Carolina, portions of another megafarm are being converted back to wetlands in hopes of improving water quality in the adjacent estuary. Kirby-Smith has received a grant from the North Carolina Coastal Federation and the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources to monitor the improvements. “Our overall goal is to see if we can reopen waters adjacent to the farm that have closed to shellfishing,” Kirby-Smith says.
Kirby-Smith has been dismayed to find that current state regulations requiring stormwater controls and buffers around shellfish waters have proven to be largely ineffective in maintaining water quality. Shellfish closures are increasing, even around expensive residential developments.
He and other scientists have presented their findings to state officials. In light of these findings and of lawsuits threatened by environmental groups, the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission and the N.C. Division of Water Quality have recently announced they are reexamining their stormwater regulations. This gives Kirby-Smith reason for hope.
“I have found the staff of the state agencies are very interested in coming up with solutions based on the science,” Kirby-Smith says. “Of course, science alone will not solve the problems. It is up to the politicians to make those decisions.”
Curtis Richardson, director of the Duke University Wetland Center, is in the solution business. He is conducting groundbreaking research on the role that wetlands can play in protecting water quality. Wetlands serve as habitat for all manner of wildlife. They also play a vital role in filtering out pollutants.
Over the past three centuries, millions of acres of wetlands in the United States have been drained and filled to make way for agriculture and development. Federal and some state governments now have laws to prevent further loss. Richardson and his students are researching whether or not these laws are having the desired effect.
“We looked at North Carolina’s Coastal Area Management Act and other regulations to determine if they are actually slowing wetland loss on the coast,” Richardson says. “We found that they are. However, the numbers can be deceptive. We may have lost only 160 acres of coastal wetlands in a particular year, but this can represent miles and miles of shoreline.”
Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that “isolated” wetlands, those not adjacent to navigable waters, are not protected by federal law. Richardson says that in states without their own regulations, this ruling could result in a significant loss of wetlands as developers rush to drain and build on them. Master’s student Liza Cushion MEM’06 is comparing the effects of this ruling in two states, North Carolina and Texas, the former with a strong state law protecting wetlands and the latter without one.
At a site near the urban edge of Duke Forest in Durham, Richardson and his students are conducting a multi-phased stream restoration and constructed wetlands project. Phase I of the project involved restoration of a badly degraded creek with riparian wetlands. This was followed by construction of a dam and a 1.6-hectare stormwater-retention reservoir.
A future phase will involve construction of a wetland just south of N.C. 751 near Wallace Wade Stadium. This wetland will be specifically designed to treat runoff from nearby rooftops, parking lots and streets on 60 acres of Duke’s campus.
Though these wetlands lie far from the coast, Richardson emphasizes that runoff from Duke’s campus eventually feeds into the Cape Fear River and from there into the Atlantic Ocean. “Wetlands start at the headwaters, and to understand their effects on water quality, you have to study on multiple scales,” Richardson says. “It’s a piece of a much larger puzzle.”
Photos: Larry Crowder; William Kirby-Smith; Mike Orbach; Orrin Pilkey; Curt Richardson