The N.C. Division of Land Resources and local governments have initiated enforcement actions against 31 of the sites. The 79 sites represent 22 percent of the 363 locations inspected during the sweep, which was designed to help all state and local sedimentation control program staff evaluate program performance, regulatory compliance and the state's progress in the Crabtree Watershed. The cooperative inspection effort, which included representatives from local sedimentation control programs for Raleigh, Cary, Durham County and Wake County, involved a preliminary review of the watershed from the air and a single-day sweep of all construction activities in the watershed covered by erosion and sedimentation control requirements of the Sedimentation Pollution Control Act of 1973. Most problems observed were related to deficient maintenance of control devices, according to a report prepared by the N.C. Division of Land Resources.
Sediment is the largest water pollutant by volume in North Carolina and the United States.
Sedimentation fills streams and lakes, and can kill fish, destroy their habitats and their food supply. It also can carry harmful chemicals and pollutants into waterways. After a red plume of sediment from construction sites and other land-disturbing activities in the Research Triangle was spotted on the Neuse River in June of 1997, Governor Hunt called upon the Division of Land Resources and the N.C. Sedimentation Control Commission to strengthen the state's program. In response, the commission adopted a plan to reduce amounts of the pollutant reaching the state's rivers and streams. The plan calls for expanding and enhancing erosion-control requirements, toughening enforcement practices available to the state and locally delegated programs, and increasing technical training and assistance for land developers and local government programs.