Environmentalists predicted massive fish kills, rising nitrogen levels and other ongoing problems in the Pamlico Sound. So far, the predicted post-disaster disaster hasn't hit. Beyond a few isolated incidents, the Carolinas coastline has seen no huge environmental crises. That doesn't mean they're not coming. Homes and businesses wash away overnight, can be repaired in weeks and months.
Environmental nightmares can take years to reveal themselves and decades to clean up.
Even the people who are experts at this kind of thing are stuck waiting. Henries and his colleagues know about patience. It's a basic requirement of their work. Ten years ago, state environmentalists declared the Tar-Pamlico essentially dead, too polluted for commercial fishermen to make a living. The state has spent millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours cleaning the water of dangerous toxins and raising low oxygen levels.