Invasive Weeds Threaten North Carolina's Inland Waters (Campus BluePrint Blog Sept 2012)

The 40-mile-long Eno River runs through Orange and Durham counties providing drinking water, recreational opportunities and biodiversity, and it is in danger. A serious ecological and economic threat hides just beneath the surface of the river, casting a shadow of doubt over its future, and that of North Carolina’s many other inland waters as well. The threat in question, however, is no more than a seemingly innocuous weed named hydrilla.

Hydrilla is an invasive aquatic weed, regarded by the USDA as especially harmful to existing environments and their native species. It spreads in shallow water and forms dense mats of stems and leaves, crowding out other aquatic plants, constricting fish movement and depleting dissolved oxygen in the water, according to a scientific profile from North Carolina State University.

Not only does hydrilla endanger aquatic species, which the Eno River has many of, but it can create breeding areas for mosquitos and seriously affect swimming, fishing, and boating, Kurt Schlimme, director of conservation for the Eno River Association, said in an interview.

Water quality in the river is also a concern, as much water is withdrawn for residential, but also for industrial purposes. Eno River water is used extensively by the town of Hillsborough and rural areas of Orange and Alamance counties.

Dale Hamby, water treatment plant manager for Orange-Alamance Water System, Inc., said that the hydrilla has gotten visibly worse in the last three years. “It hasn’t caused me trouble yet, but I can see where it would,” he said in an interview.

Justin Nawrocki, graduate research assistant at NCSU, said that because of toxic cyanobacteria that can grow on hydrilla, the hydrilla can have devastating effects on bird populations as well. “It has decimated the bald eagle population on [Lake Strom Thurmond] in Georgia,” said Nawrocki in an email interview.

Nawrocki has been involved since 2009 with the Eno River project, which has been working to find ways to combat hydrilla effectively. He said they have been testing an herbicide called endothall to ensure that it would not do too much collateral environmental damage to the river if used to treat the infestation.

“It has a relatively short contact-time requirement to obtain control, which is extremely important in a system like the Eno,” said Nawrocki. “We feel we can safely treat the river with endothall.”

Endothall is a herbicide commonly used to control submersed aquatic vegetation, and, according to the assessment of the EPA, not a serious risk to public health, as long as it is applied more than 600 feet away from where water is being drawn.

Nawrocki said that there are other herbicides being looked at as well, and money is “a significant factor that needs to be considered when formulating a management program.

“State funds are lacking, and hydrilla management is expensive and will be needed for many years to come,” Nawrocki said.

He said the treatment would be even tougher because of how hydrilla grows and spreads. It easily colonizes new areas by leaving plant fragments hidden beneath the soil and releasing buds to be carried downstream.

The buds can remain dormant for up to a year before sprouting, and the fragments beneath the soil can last even longer.

Hydrilla was first discovered in the United States in Florida in 1960, and it was identified in North Carolina in Wake County’s Umstead Park in 1980.

It usually spreads by attaching itself to boats, which carry it to new areas, and it was probably first introduced to American water systems by someone who used it as a decorative aquarium plant, Tom Davis, Orange County water resources coordinator, said in an interview.

Now hydrilla has spread around much of the country, and it is the target of enormous amounts of public spending.  Hydrilla was discovered in the Finger Lakes of New York last year, and now public officials there estimate that it will cost $1 million a year for 5 to 8 years to deal with the intrusion.

In Florida, where hydrilla is so widespread that management efforts are usually directed only at containment, in lieu of eradication, public agencies spent nearly $12 million in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

“Currently it is a problem without a solution,” said Schlimme. “The best way for folks to help is to begin questioning decision-makers about what is being done about the issue.

“We are extremely lucky to be in a region with so many outdoor resources and so many great organizations dedicated to protecting these resources,” Schlimme said. “We need to be advocates for these places.”

 http://campusblueprint.com/2012/09/29/invasive-weeds-threaten-north-carolinas-inland-waters/

Obey Creek Sparks Debate Between Developers and Environmentalists (Campus BluePrint Blog September 2012)

Obey Creek is a 120-acre property of largely undeveloped land in southern Chapel Hill, blanketed with a thick forest, neatly bisected by Wilson Creek, and marked with steep slopes and hills throughout the terrain. Obey Creek, however, is viewed by different people in very different ways; some see it as a vulnerable environmental preserve of sorts, while others see it as a wellspring of economic opportunity.

Directly across the street from Southern Village and Southern Community Park, Obey Creek is the subject of an extensive development proposal submitted in July by Roger Perry of East West Partners Club Management. The concept plan, itself a revised version of the original plan submitted in 2010, provides for approximately 1.5 million square feet of developed space, including area for retail, commercial buildings, a residential zone and a 120-room hotel.

Betsy Smith, however, says she doesn’t think development is a good idea. An ecologist who lives in the area, Smith says that Obey Creek is an especially sensitive site. “It’s in a watershed [with] very steep slopes, [it’s] highly erodible, and any kind of development is going to contribute to the problem of water quality,” she said in an interview.

The developers have committed in their concept application to not developing directly along the creek and to keeping the water clean, but Smith says that water pollution is inevitable with development on this scale, and that it could be an especially big problem for Obey Creek, which was originally zoned only for low-density residential development.

“It seeps into Jordan Lake,” Smith said, “which, under the Clean Water Act, is already non-compliance.”

Smith says that, according to the law as it currently stands, Chapel Hill could be responsible for cleaning up the Jordan Lake Reservoir “if they don’t reduce the input into the lake by 2014.”

Smith said she was also concerned about the air pollution that could be caused by the huge influx of cars moving through the new area, which will house a retail area of 350,000 square feet—about the size of University Mall—including some kind of “big-box” national retailer.

Chapel Hill Town Council member Penny Rich said that the council and the town don’t have ultimate control over land use. “We can’t always pick and choose who is going to be building and who is going to be owning the land,” she said in an interview.

Rich said that Chapel Hill as a whole constantly fights against development, and if the town continues to refuse to develop, there will be financial consequences, and other counties will benefit. “We can’t just keep letting our tax dollars leave Orange County and expect to not raise taxes on people,” she said.

“We will wind up with a very, very expensive county to live in, and it will change our county,” Rich said. “We will lose our diversity, which we already seem to be doing.

“Now that doesn’t mean I think we should build big-box stores all over the place,” Rich said. “I am not for that at all.”

Rich said that the most important thing is to keep an open mind and listen to everyone.

Perry could not be reached for comment, but according to the concept plan submitted jointly to council by East West Partners Club Management and two other developers, sustainability and resource preservation are important priorities that will be deliberately kept in mind during the construction process.

Along with the concept plan proposal, another document was submitted as a statement of compliance with Chapel Hill’s 2020 Comprehensive Plan, which, as a plan that involved extensive public input, includes a substantial amount of environmental considerations.

Jeanne Brown, a local resident, says she is not opposed to development in Obey Creek in theory, but the current plan goes too far and ignores public opinion.

Brown is a member of Citizens for Responsible Growth, which is a politically active organization of local residents that speaks out against the proposed Obey Creek development. She says that Chapel Hill needs to work harder to be transparent and keep citizens informed when there is planning like this happening.

Brown said she first heard about the original 2010 concept plan long after the process had begun.
 
“A boy in our carpool got in the car one morning and he was really upset to know that there was going to be a hotel in his backyard,” Brown said in an interview. “I thought that seemed unlikely, but the more I read about it, the more I realized what was going on.”

Brown said she understands that development is unavoidable, but she wants some of the Obey Creek property to be left undeveloped. “The fact of the matter is it’s zoned for development, and right now it’s zoned for the entire property to be developed.

“In the best of worlds it would stay what it is,” Brown said.

The Chapel Hill Town Council will hold a hearing on the issue on Wednesday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall on 405 Martin Luther King Blvd.



 http://campusblueprint.com/2012/09/22/obey-creek-sparks-debate-between-developers-and-environmentalists/

The Junior Experience, or: My Life as an Upperclassman (LCM Belltower September 2012)

Being a junior is a lot like being a sophomore, but with more credibility. I still don't know how to cook an egg to save my life, and my sense of direction can't get me any farther than the laundry room, let alone Carrboro, but for some reason people seem to think I know what I'm doing now.

But I guess my perspective is different now too. Even if I'm still generally clueless, I feel experienced, like a grizzled veteran of the martial struggle for higher education. The coolest part about that is I get to help out underclassmen and not feel like the blind leading the blind; I'm finally allowed to pretend I know what I'm talking about and excitedly share my knowledge with the new first-years--in exchange, of course, for the occasional free meal at Lenoir Dining Hall.

Junior year brings its own challenges though. My classes are getting harder, my papers are getting longer, and I've had to face the unfortunate truth that being in a ukulele ensemble is not relevant experience for a future career in Journalism. I've moved off campus this year as well, so that's necessarily opened up a veritable Pandora's box of domestic challenges.

However, despite having to clean my own bathroom and learn to cook for myself without burning the whole apartment complex down, I am still just as excited for the coming year as I was for the last two, if not more so. I have my housemates, Alex and my cousin Meredith, and I have all of LCM to support me and give me experiences to look back and reflect on for years to come. The novelty of simply being in college has not even begun to wear off, and I'm confident that UNC and LCM have many more experiences, lessons, and surprises in store for me.



studentorgs.unc.edu/lcm/index.php/helpful-documents/doc_download/25-belltower-2012-2013-september