These extra four stories of water have flooded thousands of acres surrounding the small city, briefly reclaiming some of its historic flood plain in what some are already declaring an 1,000 year flood event (although in reality, this is the second “1,000 year event” within three years).
Hurricane Florence landed in Wrightsville Beach, NC as a Category 1 hurricane, downgraded from the fears it would arrive as category 4.
Turns out Florence is not a light packer; the storm dumped about 18 million gallons of rain over the region, depositing 30 to 35 inches of rain in some places.
And while human health and welfare take precedence in this disaster, the Cape Fear river and estuary system is taking a beating too.
Paerl’s team used water quality data collected over 20 years within the Neuse River-Pamlico Sound system, directly to the north of the Cape Fear river.
Dr. Michael Mallin at the University of North Carolina Wilmington has been studying the Cape Fear watershed for decades.
″[Waste lagoons] are pollution time bombs waiting to go off” Extreme flood events like Florence can cause lagoons to overflow or be swallowed by the swollen river, causing mass contamination of floodwaters with nutrient and bacteria-ridden waste.
In 2016′s Hurricane Matthew, when the river crested at 52 feet, as many as 14 lagoons were breached.
The flooding hasn’t ended yet and almost two dozen lagoons have been compromised, at least one coal ash pit has already been breached, and thousands of animals are dead thanks to Hurricane Florence.
Hog farmers prepare for large rain events by pumping out their lagoons, spraying the material on fields.

According to data reported by the island’s water systems between January 2015 and March 2018, 97 percent of Puerto Rico’s population is served by a local drinking water system with at least one recent violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act’s lead and copper testing requirements.
Under the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act, water utilities are required to test for lead and other metals in the water, and to report the results to both consumers and to the federal government, which publishes the data.
But, he says, the federal data make the problem seem worse than it is, because federal law requires that the utility test the drinking water at specific times.
But in Puerto Rico, there isn’t always water to test.
And when the water is off, they don’t test it.
But lead contamination doesn’t have to come from public pipes.
But, she says, public distrust is already so high that transparency about drinking water testing is a good thing, even if the data suggest that drinking water might not be entirely safe.
It would also push states to consolidate systems that are struggling to comply with safe drinking water laws.
Scientists, public health experts, government officials and advocates all agree that Puerto Rico needs serious investment in its drinking water infrastructure.
But, he says, money isn’t the whole answer, because a lot of drinking water testing is done by hand, by actual people.

MADISON, Ind., Sept. 20, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Many US Citizens believe that contaminated drinking water is only a problem in developing regions across the globe.
As the water infrastructure ages, the integrity of the distribution systems becomes more vulnerable to leakage and fracture.
These contaminants can have drastic effects on adults, children, un-born babies, and pets.
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Safe Home® Test Kits are one of the most comprehensive test kits for a wide range of contaminants in drinking water – (metals such as Lead, physical properties like Hardness, In-organics such as Nitrate and Organics like Pesticides).
Safe Home® offers two platforms of test kits: Do-It-Yourself Testing (the homeowner conducts the tests) and Laboratory Testing (Safe Home’s EPA Certified Drinking Water Testing Lab conducts the tests).
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[SCOTT WHEELER/THE LEDGER] All of Winston Academy of Engineering’s drinking and cooking water has been declared safe following three tests for lead contamination in the last month.
A letter sent from the Polk County School District to parents Wednesday shows the lead levels are no longer elevated.
“Dear families, Polk County Public Schools has announced the results of follow-up lead testing, which show that Winston Academy of Engineering no longer has elevated levels of lead present in its water supply,” the letter states.
“The school has been cleared to use regular water for drinking and cooking; bottled water will no longer be provided.” Rory Luce, the PCSD maintenance manager, has been dealing with very high levels coming from a sink faucet that sat unused in classroom 4 in building 7.
A second test taken last week showed it was still at 20 parts per billion.
The clear water samples came back at 7.7 parts per billion.
Letters also went home this week to the parents of students at Bartow Elementary Academy, and Shelley S. Boone Middle School and Daniel Jenkins Academy in Haines City, notifying them that lead testing was being done on “fixtures in the kitchen, as well as water fountains and all other drinking sources” at those schools Thursday.
“The bagged fixtures will be left undisturbed until the morning of Thursday, Sept. 20, when maintenance personnel will collect water samples for testing.
After samples are collected, the bags will be removed and the fixtures will be put back in service until lab results have been completed.” The letters further state that any fixtures where water samples show elevated levels of lead will be taken out of service until repairs have been completed and subsequent testing shows those repairs were effective.
The district began voluntarily testing for lead contamination in drinking and cooking water in August after Hillsborough County found lead in some of its schools’ drinking water over the summer.

Making references to water contamination in Flint, Mich., activists Thursday denounced Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools for withholding information about lead in school water and mold in classrooms.
That’s how serious this is,” said Corine Mack, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg branch of the NAACP.
About two dozen adults and teens gathered at Little Rock AME Zion Church in uptown Charlotte Thursday to demand greater accountability from a superintendent who initially dismissed high levels of lead coming from school drinking fountains as “not noteworthy or newsworthy.” Rev.
Dwayne Walker, pastor of the church, agreed to lead a group of business, civic and political leaders who will seek a meeting with Superintendent Clayton Wilcox and his top staff.
Last fall CMS voluntarily tested water from drinking fountains and other fixtures at 58 older elementary and K-8 schools.
At Thursday’s meeting, organizers played a clip of Wilcox telling WSOC he didn’t consider those findings “noteworthy or newsworthy.” But as criticism continued, Wilcox told the school board that CMS “probably could have done a better job … we learned some lessons about that.” Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Current Time 0:00 / Duration 2:20 Clayton Wilcox, CMS superintendent, talks about testing water Advertisement Some Charlotte-Mecklenburg elementary schools found lead in their drinking water.
Brian Kasher, a current CMS parent and former environmental health manager for the district, says CMS has continued to resist providing some details from the first round of lead testing, including appendices that reveal the locations of the fixtures that were tested.
Kasher said Wilcox has continued a CMS tradition of explaining away environmental problems when the public turns up the pressure with, “Oops, we need to improve communication.” Read More CMS found lead in water at 27 schools.
Read More CMS will test 32 more schools for lead.
This time parents will get the results.

A visit by The Nation to the community revealed that the some of the water from these sources have very strong smell of petrol while others have very strong smell of chemicals which cannot be ascertained.
“The water smells, it has been like this for two years.
It started with the well before it got into the boreholes.
Before, we use our borehole water for everything but everything have changes, we have to collect water for rain or go to other communities that are not affected to fetch water to use.
Even if you use the water for washing clothes, the smell comes out strong on the clothes.” Elisha Jiya of Dazhiworo compound said that it got two of his younger brothers coming down with typoid twice a month for his family to stop drinking the water adding that they suspect the source of the problem is from the underground tanks of a filling station which is located with the neighborhood because of the strong smell of petrol in the waters.
He lamented that the management of the station had denied it but disclosed that laboratory tests carried out by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources regional water quality laboratory revealed that that the preliminary odour, color and taste tested showed that the waters are contaminated with petrol while the dissolved oxygen is unsatisfactory.
We need this issue to be addressed urgently.
They should go and find the source of their contaminated water and stop putting the blame on us.
” She confirmed that DPR had carried out test of some of the waters and showed the Reporter a letter written to them by DPR absolving them from any fault but when shown the water drawn from one of the affected wells, she claimed it was not the water.
Efforts made to get to the Commissioners of Environment and Health proved abortive as moves made to get an official response to steps taken as regarding the letter received about the contamination of water from the Commissioner, Permanent Secretary and PRO were unsuccessful.

ISLAMABAD: Senators on Monday were concerned after it emerged that solid waste and sewerage was being dumped into the Rawal Lake, either directly or indirectly, which could endanger those consuming water supplied from it.
Senator Ayaz noted that the Rawal Dam, which serves as a water supply reservoir, was being contaminated by toxic water which drains into the lake.
Committee members noted that waste from the Rawal Lake Park was also dumped into the lake which further contaminates the water in the reservoir.
She detailed how it had been working as an attached department of the Climate Change Ministry following the promulgation of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Ordinance 1983.
Moreover, 54 notices were issued to offenders and polluters, violators of the act.
Shah, however, noted that they lacked sufficient human resource for monitoring of hospitals and the method of waste disposal.
Since 2004, they have received 92 cases for petrol pumps of which 81 were approved.
For CNG stations, all 133 applications received were approved.
Senator Ayaz asked why EPA had been created if it did not have the facilities and human resources to do its job.
Climate Change Ministry Secretary Khizer Hayat said that they were making efforts to achieve the set targets as per international conventions and treaties.

Bowcock led a roundtable discussion Monday with local, state and Patrick Air Force Base officials in a closed-door meeting at City Hall about recent and past drinking water and groundwater pollution concerns.
Brockovich and Bowcock plan to return to Satellite Beach on Sept. 29, Bowcock said, to hold a community meeting about the local cancer concerns.
Catino told them it was a private meeting, because fewer than three elected city officials were there at any given time.
Three years after her son’s diagnosis, as he recovers, she wants answers about the safety of what they drink and breathe in their home.
"It was because we were drinking swamp water," Altman said of Lake Washington, a primary supply for the utility.
Local cancer concerns reemerged in the Satellite Beach area after Dr. Julie Clift Greenwalt, a Jacksonville oncologist, cancer survivor and Satellite High School grad, began questioning whether local environmental exposures contributed to her rare cancer (of the appendix) and the cancers of about 20 fellow SHS grads.
Recent city groundwater tests at three wells also found fluorinated chemicals linked to the foams (as well as other sources), as did recent groundwater and wastewater tests by the city of Cocoa Beach.
In response to the concerns, Brevard Public Schools tested tap water at its 13 beachside schools, finding nine schools on Melbourne’s drinking water system tested at trace levels of a fluorinated compound called perfluorobutanoic acid, or PFBA.
Followup tests at three schools found similar levels, which city utility officials have said.
She coordinated independent testing for the fluorinated chemicals in canals and residences in the Satellite Beach area, results she’d planned to present Monday.

RAPID CITY, SD — Dan Soeder, director of the Energy Resources Initiative at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, has co-authored the cover article titled “When oil and water mix: Understanding the environmental impacts of shale development,” in the September 2018 issue of GSA Today, a magazine published by the Geological Society of America.
The article explores what is known and not known about the environmental risks of fracking with the intent of fostering informed discussions within the geoscience community on the topic of hydraulic fracturing, says Soeder.
Soeder’s co-author is Douglas B. Kent of the United States Geological Survey.
In this paper, Soeder and Kent bridge the gap in consensus regarding fracking, providing current information about the environmental impacts of shale development.
The article is open access and adheres to science and policy, presenting a complicated and controversial topic in a manner more easily understood by the lay person.
"Geoscientists from dinosaur experts to the people studying the surface of Mars are often asked by the public to weigh-in with their opinions on fracking.
A great deal has been learned in the past decade, but there are still critical unknowns where we don’t yet have answers," Soeder says.
Bringing together experts in regional energy issues, Soeder and ERI will also host the New Horizons Energy Conference Oct. 25-26, at the Surbeck Center on the campus of Mines.
The first day of the New Horizons Energy Conference includes a full day of technical presentations and student posters, a panel discussion on energy policy followed by a reception at Paleontology Research Laboratory at SD Mines.
A short course from the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council will also be offered.

The National Weather Service said Florence could bring as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain in the region and lead to major river flooding that could last for several days.
The National Weather Service has declared a flash-flood emergency for part of the county that is home to North Carolina’s biggest city.
A flash-flood emergency also was declared for adjacent Union County, where the weather service says several water rescues were underway and emergency management officials reported as many as 70 flooded roads.
2:30 p.m. South Carolina officials are warning residents about flash flooding as rains from Florence continue to pelt the state.
Heavy rain has fallen on portions of central and eastern South Carolina after former hurricane-turned-Tropical Depression Florence moved onshore.
Many of the city’s stations are out of fuel.
10:45 a.m. North Carolina’s transportation secretary says one of his top priorities is to find a way to get into Wilmington after damage from Florence closed major roads into the city.
4:10 a.m. Florence has weakened into a tropical depression but flash flooding and major river flooding are expected to continue over significant portions of the Carolinas.
Both states also are at a risk of dangerous flash floods and river flooding.
Tropical Storm Florence is expected to weaken into a depression soon but flash flooding and major river flooding are expected to continue over significant portions of the Carolinas.