DATE: Friday, July 11, 1997                 TAG: 9707110613

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:   28 lines

SALTWATER TESTING PROGRAM YIELDS THREE WARNINGS OF HIGH BACTERIA

State officials launched a saltwater warning program by recommending that people avoid swimming in parts of three coastal rivers and sounds.

The warnings Wednesday for high levels of fecal coliform bacteria did not apply to any ocean beach areas.

Health officials warned against swimming at Bell's Island campground on Currituck Sound in Currituck County, Elizabeth City town park on the Pasquotank River and the Belhaven town boat ramp on Pantego Creek, which leads into the Pamlico Sound.

Johanna Reese of the state Division of Environmental Health said five consecutive weekly samples from the three sites violated a new standard.

Reese said advisory signs will be posted at sites that violate the standard. In addition, the sites will be posted on the Internet. The address is www.state.nc.us/EHNR/coast.

State scientists have not yet developed a standard for another indicator organism, enterococcus, which survives better in saltwater than fecal coliform bacteria.

Officials have been taking 275 samples a week along the coast since June in a program that is due to end in August unless the Legislature provides money.

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