CAPE HATTERAS NATIONAL SEASHORE, N.C. (WNCN) — After Hurricane Erin brushed the North Carolina coast earlier this week, state recreational water officials issued a precautionary swimming advisory along part of the Outer Banks.
The area under the precautionary advisory includes the “ocean waters in and between the Villages of Rodanthe, Buxton, and Hatteras along Highway 12 on Cape Hatteras National Seashore,” the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality said in a news release.
“The advisory is due to public health risks resulting from exposed septic drain fields and pumping of ocean over wash to the ocean surf,” the release said. “Hurricane Erin caused extensive erosion and storm surge in this area.”
People who swim in these areas become at risk for health problems such as diarrhea, abdominal cramps and skin infections due to possible contamination from wastewater discharges and other environmental hazards that get swept into the ocean after storms like Erin.
The state says, however, that the swimming advisory is precautionary and is expected to be temporary.
“State officials are monitoring the situation and will lift the advisory when bacteriological test results come back within state and federal standards and 24 hours after pumping has ceased when the risk of exposure is no longer a concern,” the NC DEQ said in the release.
All sites, whether oceanside or soundside, under any kind of swimming advisory can be found on the NC DEQ’s Recreational Water Quality page.
NC 12 began reopening Saturday, two days after it closed due to impacts from Hurricane Erin.
Hannah Leyva
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