The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1958-06-27
PUMPING STATION
AT FAIRFIELD TO
OPEN NEXT WEEK
Project Costing $4,000 To Ben.
eft 80 Families and
l2.400 Acres

thursday, July 8, VIII De an I'M
portant day in the community o.
Fairfield in Hyde County, where /;
celebration will be held to mari
the completion of the $195,00(
pumping station and drainage
!, project to benefit 1880 acres Of
land and 80 families who depend
on it for livelihood.
Congressman Herbert Bonner
who worked long at the effort tC
get Uncle Sam to assist this prof.
ect is expected to be present
George M. Cuthrell is chairman OF
the planning committee which is
arranging the celebration, with A
B. Harris, and numerous Others
assisting.
The ceremonies begin at 1880
am. and a dinner will be served
Immediately after to invited
guests, at the Masonic building in
Fairfield.
A history of this drainage prof.
ect based on Government reports,
which, was furnished some time
ago for our readers and is re-
printed herewith:
Fairfield Drainage Project
Farmers and owners of land in
the Fairfield area have maintained
for some 25 years that salt water
brought in by the Intracoastal
Waterway has damaged timber and
crops.
During a hearing at Fairfield
January Is, 1945, opinions were
expressed that crop yields had
dropped since the waterway was
constructed about 1928. Some testi-
fled that certain lands had become
worthless because of the intrusion
of salt and resulting impaired
drainage. Others claimed yields
had been reduced from a fourth
to half of former yields. They
pictured Fairfield as a land of
abandoned farms.
Two causes of the evil were pro-
jected at the hearing: II Water
level in Fairfield Canal was said
to be 10 to IS inches higher since
the waterway was cut and, y
Water level in the Pungo River
salty was said to be Is inches
higher than that of the Alligator
River (fresh). This variation, they
contended, accounted for the intru-
sion of salt water on the soil and
in the lake.
In 1912 samples of the soil made
by the North Carolina Department
of Agriculture showed an unusual
ly high content of salt.
The AIWW from Norfolk to
Beaufort includes land cut II
feet deep and 80 feet wide con-
Meeting Alligator River, tribu-
tary of Albemarle Sound, with
Pungo River, a tributary of Pam
leo River. This land cut, COM
pleted in 1928, and the rivers it
connects isolate from the mainland
a flat area 60 miles long and II
! to IS miles wide, north of the bor-
dering Pamlico Sound. Mattamus-
keet Lake, covering 65 square
miles is a shallow natural body of
water in the center of the isolated
area. Shortly after 1920, local in
terests constructed a project to
drain the lands by canals and
bitches into the lake from which
the water was then pumped and
Carried by a canal to Pamlico
Sound. In addition to draining the
! adjoining farm land, this process
permitted the cultivation of 10000
acres of lake bottom. The project
was abandoned after the crop sea-
son of 1881, just three crop sea-
sons after completion of the land
cut section of the AIWW. Three
/. years later the lake and immed-
; late surrounding area were taken
over by the Fish and Wild Life
Service. Some of the canals have
recently been blocked to keep
| water from the AIWW out of the
area. However a net work of cross
bitches and canals permits inter
change of water between the
AIWW and the lake. In the area
considered in our project document
; report there are 12,400 acres OF
land, 1000 acres of which are ex.
cellent farm land. The principa
crops are cotton, corn, and soy.
beans. Local interests claim thai
the AIWW has impaired drainage
and accelerated intrusions of sail
water. We found salinity of water
in the AIWW at Fairfield to BIZ
5000 of seawater. Over 1919 is
injurious to crops.
Reports of tests say that il
some instances a white slime wa:
seen in the middle of rows Will,
samples of soil were being taken
Salinity appeared to be absp
1919 at the western end of tn,
lake area and decreasing to abou
4.5 per cent eastward. During /;
relatively dry season in 1914 salin
ity in the waterway at Fairfield