THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, September 23, 1995           TAG: 9509230272
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: WILMINGTON                         LENGTH: Short :   44 lines

NEW RIVER IS STILL POLLUTED BY HOG WASTE, RESEARCHER SAYS

Remnants of the 25 million gallons of hog waste that spilled into the New River three months ago have settled into the river bottom and continue to dangerously pollute the waterway, a researcher said.

``I wouldn't wade in that river,'' said Dr. Joann Burkholder, a North Carolina State University scientist who sits on the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission.

The commission held meetings Thursday and Friday to review water quality issues confronting the state.

The meeting coincided with news that more than 1 million fish have been killed in the past 10 days in the Neuse River near New Bern. Most of the fish are small menhaden, but Rick Dove of the Neuse River Foundation said croaker and shad also have washed ashore.

The fish kills may be the work of a toxic algae, said Al Hodge, a water quality supervisor with the state Division of Environmental Management. The river has plenty of oxygen where the fish are dying, Dove said.

Burkholder renewed her call for state health and water quality officials to sample river sediment where pollution is known to exist. A long-range plan is needed to clean up the river, she said. The plan should address the burgeoning hog industry and waste from the sewage plants, The Morning Star of Wilmington reported.

``The New River is a mess,'' she said Thursday.

Burkholder contradicted statements made about the New River by state health director Ron Levine and Onslow County Health Director Danny Jacob.

Both concluded, when deciding to lift the health advisory for the portion of the river affected by the June 21 spill, that the New River was no more dangerous than any other river in the state.

But state officials are not testing the sediment, where all the hog waste has buried, Burkholder said.

``Fecal coliform levels in the sediments are very high . . . ,'' she said. by CNB