The NC Coastal Federation (NCCF) is working with key partners to develop a watershed action plan for the Newport River. In FY 2023-24, KIETS support enabled the NCCF and NC State team to finalize the draft watershed plan. The team shared the plan with local government partners (Newport, Morehead City, Beaufort, and Carteret County) for their review and input. The draft plan provides an overview of the past, present, and projected water quality conditions of the Newport River, as well as methods and strategies intended to reduce the rate and volume of polluted stormwater runoff to improve water quality and mitigate flooding.
NC State researchers Dr. Natalie Nelson and Dr. Angela Harris, and Ph.D. student Julia Harrison prepared a water quality sampling and analysis report that showed no clear hotspots of contamination along the main stem of the Newport River, but concentrations were instead consistently elevated. The Federation partnered with the KIETS Climate Leaders Program to host a scholar in Summer 2024 at the Federation’s Central Office. Swarna Chowdhury, NC State Ph.D. student in Environmental Engineering has expertise in coastal modeling that evaluates coastal hydrodynamics and sediment transport in the face of different environmental and anthropogenic activities, which include extreme events like hurricanes, aquatic habitat changes, shoreline migration, and aquaculture. The Federation also hosted Jason Vanzant a Kenan Fellow teacher in summer 2024 at their Central Office.
As part of an effort to begin implementing recommendations within the draft watershed plan, the Federation worked in partnership with the N.C. Coastal Land Trust to delineate a 3,000-acre protected and restored riparian buffer along the north shore of the estuary near the community of Mill Creek. This effort has already resulted in the purchase of 1,431 acres of ditched and drained pine plantations within that area from Weyerhaeuser Corporation, with another 1,569 acres of commercial timberland under the option to be purchased in the next year. Funding for the first land acquisition has come from the N.C. General Assembly, the N.C. Land and Water Fund, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).
The Federation has assisted in raising funds for these land acquisition efforts, including requesting approximately $3 million dollars for these land purchases in a pending proposal to NOAA to enhance coastal resiliency, submitted in partnership with the N.C. Division of Coastal Management. In addition to the land acquired to establish the riparian buffer along the shoreline of the estuary, the Federation has supported a successful $5 million grant request by the Town of Morehead City’s efforts to retrofit its stormwater outfalls along Calico Creek, and work is now beginning construction on those upgrades. It also helped to fund stormwater retrofits to create green streets in the Town of Beaufort, working with N.C. DOT as well as the town to obtain both legislative appropriations as well as other funds for those improvements. Finally, the Federation obtained a $5 million appropriation from the N.C. General Assembly to conduct a pilot project to upgrade stormwater systems permitted by the State’s Coastal Stormwater Program and has initiated work that focuses on the Newport River watershed to test out this retrofit program.