DATE: Sunday, May 4, 1997                   TAG: 9705040062

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NAGS HEAD                         LENGTH:   73 lines

OUTER BANKS ARE SAFE, TESTS CONFIRM SCIENTISTS FIND NO TRACE OF THE TOXIC FISH-KILLING PFIESTERIA IN THE SOUND OR OCEAN.

With the summer season only three weeks away, Outer Banks officials got good news Saturday: Waters around the Outer Banks are safe.

The ocean and the sound show no evidence of flesh-eating microorganisms.

Unlike some more southern areas of North Carolina, Dare County is pfiesteria-free - and state-approved for swimming and fishing.

``We have found no pfiesteria - not one cell - in our detailed sample analyses,'' North Carolina State University Professor JoAnn Burkholder wrote in a one-page memo issued late Friday.

``We had expected this to be the case because we have never found pfiesteria at any location on the Outer Banks in previous testing, and also because there is no better place to look for excellent water quality in North Carolina than on the Outer Banks,'' Burkholder wrote.

``I have continued to encourage folks who have contacted me from across the country to feel safe and enjoy their vacations on the Outer Banks.''

Pfiesteria are one-celled creatures, toxic microorganisms that have killed more than a million fish in North Carolina and infected dozens of watermen with bloody sores. They probably have inhabited the world's waters for thousands of years. But Burkholder didn't discover them in large numbers until 1990.

Pfiesteria can live in either fresh or salt water and seem to proliferate and take on a deadly form when exposed to high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous - byproducts of human and animal waste.

Pfiesteria have been documented from Delaware through Alabama. In North Carolina, the highest concentrations of the microorganism - and dead fish - have been in the Neuse and Pamlico rivers. Both of those waterways flow into Pamlico Sound, on the back side of the southern Outer Banks. But by the time that water washes all the way to Hatteras Island, scientists say, the pfiesteria have been diluted to less-harmful concentrations. There is no evidence that pfiesteria kills people - but some watermen say they've experienced muscle spasms after working on infected rivers.

Last month, while reviewing a recently published book on pfiesteria, the Dateline NBC television program highlighted the North Carolina fish kills and problems with the state's waters. Other national news media picked up the story. Many people feared that Outer Banks waterways also might be infested.

So North Carolina Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight - who grew up on the Outer Banks and owns a Nags Head restaurant - ordered a special study of the sea and sound from Nags Head through Hatteras Island.

Burkholder's assistant, Howard Glasgow, took samples from eight sites between Old Nags Head Cove and Buxton. He didn't find even a trace of pfiesteria. He might come back to the Outer Banks this summer to retest the waters.

``Last week, someone gave me a fax from an out-of-town family that was canceling their cottage rental reservation at the Village at Nags Head because they were worried about pfiesteria,'' Basnight said Saturday. ``They had seen Dateline. And they didn't want to risk their vacation here.

``That's when I decided we had to arrange for our waters to be tested. I know our water is very clean - except for a few minor hot spots that have no effect on whether we can swim or recreate,'' the senator said. ``I never felt we were facing a problem with water quality here, today.

``But I have serious concerns for tomorrow. We've still got a lot of change that's got to happen in the ways we develop and grow - and dispose of our waste. You're seeing a lot of legislation that addresses those issues being debated in the General Assembly right now.''

Officials are working to get the word out that Outer Banks waterways are safe. Basnight's office is forwarding Friday's water study results to NBC, The Associated Press and Dateline reporters. Dare County tourism workers are sending a press release across the East Coast.

``People didn't understand the location of the problem areas. They just saw pfiesteria and associated it with all of North Carolina,'' said Nags Head Mayor Renee Cahoon, who also chairs Dare County's Tourism Board.

``These study results just tell us what we thought was the case all along: Our waters around the Outer Banks are fine.''

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