North Raleigh Today

The summer heat might be a good excuse to take a dip to cool off, but if rivers are your water of choice, be wary in the Upper Neuse, a river expert says.

“Use extreme caution from Buffaloe Road all the way down to Clayton River Walk, because the river has high turbidity and a lot of E. coli,” Clay Barber, program director of Sound Rivers — a nonprofit protecting the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico rivers in eastern North Carolina through monitoring, advocacy and environmental justice — told CBS17.com. He added that the situation is due to heavy rain and development in the area.

Sound Rivers monitors various parts of the waterways, and has identified six sites that recently failed the swim test guide, with five of those six being termed "off the charts,” Barber said.

Areas in the Upper Neuse River that failed the test include Buffaloe Road, Milburnie, Anderson Point, Poole Road, Clayton River Walk and Neuse Golf Club, according to CBS17.com.

The organization’s swim guide shows that all areas, aside from the Neuse Golf Club, measured higher than 2,419.6 MPN (most probable number), on a scale where 235 MPN is the EPA's water quality standard.

The areas with the high measurements should be avoided and caution should be practiced by boaters, swimmers and their pets. If someone comes into contact with that water, they could experience an increased risk of gastrointestinal illness and skin infections. 

Sound Rivers volunteers collect weekly samples from the 54 recreation sites between Raleigh-Durham and the Pamlico Sound.