UPDATE Sept 17, 2024: NCDEQ says it’s D.R. HORTON’s fault:
Original post, Sept 9, 2024: On Sunday and Monday, August 25th and 26th, several different local residents reached out to ask if we knew anything about the cloudy, smelly, “tri-colored” appearance of Deep River. The discoloration and foul odor were observed at the point where BULL RUN empties into Deep River – between Oakdale Mill Dam and the Harvey Road bridge.
On August 27, we heard from a third resident who reported BULL RUN’s murky appearance, and the resulting discoloration of Deep River, to the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Report a Violation” portal.
Bull Run is still a cloudy, smelly, chocolate brown from Deep River up through the GTCC campus. It then passes across the D.R. Horton construction property (inaccessible).
This past Saturday (Sept. 7), we obtained a sample from Bull Run near the Yorkshire neighborhood and conducted a 48-hour test for coliform bacteria. The results clearly show a POSITIVE result. Our results are limited in that we don’t know what KIND of coliform bacteria.
At Jamestown’s August 20, 2024 Town Council Meeting, it was announced that contract negotiations were underway to REPAIR the leaking sewer pipes from Oakdale Dam down to Eastside Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Bull Run, however, is murky and turbid upstream of the proposed repairs, and also upstream/north of the leaking sewer pipe over Deep River at Harvey Road bridge, for which the town received Violations Notices in February and May. This is a different issue.
Bull Run flows through neighborhoods in several parts of Jamestown, and floods into backyards during heavy storm events.
The town and state did nothing to test and report anything to us on the water condition of Bull Run, but we can at least provide you with these results, thanks to donations from Jamestown residents:
The test procedure involved the use of a gelling substance, a red tablet in a glass tube that contains nutrients to support the growth of coliform bacteria, and a pH indicator.
If coliform organisms are detected in the sample:
- Gas will be generated as a result of the bacteria metabolizing the nutrients in the tablet.
- The gas will be trapped in the gelling substance and cause the gel to rise in the tube. Bubbles will be present in the gel.
- The pH indicator will change from red to yellow
Both the gel rising to the surface and the color change must occur to indicate the existence of coliform bacteria.
For two years, Jamestown residents have been writing, submitting public comments, and asking the NCDEQ to add Jamestown’s streams and waterways to the state’s 303(d) IMPAIRED STREAMS List.
Below, left, is a post about it from April. It is the NCDEQ’s responsibility to make sure our streams’ quality data and classifications are up to date in the EPA’s data files.
Bull Run was classified by the state of North Carolina as a drinking water supply stream in 1999. Yet the EPA lists Bull Run as an “aquatic life” stream in “good” condition. The EPA’s profile of Bull Run says their information is based on data submitted (by the NCDEQ) in 2022, but if you click through, you will see that THERE IS NO DATA FOR BULL RUN, as shown at right:
D.R. Horton is currently clear-cutting hundreds of acres to pave and build 1,500 homes on a 467-acre parcel in our protected and critical Randleman Lake water supply watershed. This parcel is bordered and bisected by BULL RUN and its tributaries. The D.R. Horton property is the big green plot in the middle – Bull Run is the waterway running through it on the right (east) side, north to south:
Construction dust and sediment from the site settles/washes into tributaries to, and into, Bull Run (the line with green dots cutting north-south across the D.R. Horton property below; Jamestown and Deep River are to the south):
File complaints, express concerns, or report violations HERE.