Thirteen percent were already barren of any life. In addition, fisheries were declining because their habitats were being ruined. An influx of nutrients from sewer plants, farms and industries was causing major fish kills and dredging and a lack of bottom oxygen had decimated oyster reefs that serve as the backbone of the estuaries' food web. Researchers say that the natural balance of North Carolina's estuaries are being upset by people who are pouring too much nitrogen, which comes through the air and down rivers from animal wastes, farm fertilizers, sewage plants and industry, into the sound. Courtney Hackney, a UNC Wilmington researcher, was reported as saying that the flooding will not cause any kind of natural disaster in the long-term.
People altering the environment, however, can have lasting impacts.
Scientists and government officials have only begun to assess the extent and damage of the pollution, and judging the impacts from all the pollutants flowing into North Carolina s coastal waters will take months, if not years. How long it will take coastal waters to fully recover from Floyd is even more of a mystery. Even though oxygen and salt levels have already begun to return to pre-Floyd levels, some of the toxic chemicals being carried into the estuaries, like heavy oils, may remain in the ecosystem for years. Flooding on State Highway 264 in Greenville, NC Pamlico Sound Shows Improvement North Carolina scientists have confirmed that oxygen levels in the Pamlico Sound and the Neuse River have rebounded out of stressful conditions resulting from floodwaters associated with Hurricane Floyd. Reports from Hans Paerl, University of North Carolina-Institute of Marine Science, and Larry Crowder, Duke Marine Laboratory, show that the winds generated by Hurricane Irene were apparently strong enough to remix the low oxygen waters in the sound.