Tar-Pamlico
River Basin
Where is the River Basin located in North Carolina?
The Tar-Pamlico River Basin runs through the top eastern portion of North Carolina. The river starts just north of Raleigh in person county. The water ends up in the Pamlico sound where the outer banks gets all of its water and from there the water goes into the Atlantic ocean.
Total miles of streams and rivers in Tar-Pamlico River Basin.
The Tar-Pamlico River Basin has about 2,521 miles of streams and rivers that flow through the river basin. The
Tar River
There are many different rivers and streams that run through the Tar-Pamlico River Basin. The Tar River is one of these rivers. Some of the rivers and streams fill lakes and some of them just go straight to the ocean.
Lake Mattamusk-eet
Lake Mattamuskeet is a naturally made lake made by the Tar-Pamlico River Basin. The lake is about 18 miles long and 6 miles wide, so in total there is about 40,000 total acres. Lake Mattamuskeet is where most of the tundra swans in north Carolina go to hibranate .
Pamlico Sound
The Pamlico Sound is where all the water from the Tar-Pamlico River Basin goes to empty into the Atlantic Ocean. The Pamlico sound is the biggest sound on the east coast. The sound is about 80 miles long and 15-20 miles wide.
Outer Banks
The Outer Banks is a 200-mile-long string of narrow peninsulas and barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina and a small portion of Virginia, beginning in the southeastern corner of Virginia Beach on the east coast of the United States. The Outer Banks is a major tourist spot because of its beautiful scenery and its amazing climate. The Outer Banks is the strip of land that makes up the Pamlico sound.
Ocracoke Island
Ocracoke Island is a small island that is part of the outer banks. The population of Ocracoke Island now is about 900. The islands area is only 9.6 square miles. Also the only way to get to Ocracoke island is by using a Ferry because there is no land between land or any of the other islands.
Enviromental Problems
The Tar Pamlico River Basin began to attract public concern in the 1980's. The excessive growth of algae and numbers of diseased and dying fish began to suggest a decline in the water quality of the Tar Pamlico river basin. One Non-point source to this situation Is many treatment plants near the area has been discharging waste water into the river. Another Non-point source of the situation is run off from farmland, timber operations, and urban areas. Some point sources though that add pollution to the river basin is a large phosphate mining operation near the terminus of the Pamlico River. Also another point source that adds to the pollution to the river basin is pipes near the area. All of these factors contribute to make the river basin more polluted by all the waste water entering into the watershed and mixing with the clean water and increasing levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the watershed. So by all the water in the watershed being waste water then that means the lakes and rivers will start to become more dirtier and that causes higher death rates to animal life living in or near that water.
Solutions to the Enviromental Problems
Since the public started paying more attention to the Tar-Pamlico river basins environment and water quality the people near the area have started to be more careful to what there doing that could harm the environment. For instance the Farmers near the area were told they either had to install better irrigation systems and storage facilities for their water or they had to stop farming because the run off from their farms were making the river basins water turn into waste water. Also another place where waste water was coming from was the large phosphate mining operation near the terminus of the Pamlico River. What the mining operation could do is help fund grassed waterways on croplands instead of installing expensive, high-tech controls at the plant so that all that waste water wont go into the river basin.
Tar-Pamlico River Basin Facts
*The Tar-Pamlico River Basin is the Third largest River Basin in the state of North Carolina. *There are about 414,242 people living within the Tar-Pamlico River Basin.
*There are about 18 counties inside the Tar-Pamlico River Basin.
*There are about 663,593 total acres of water and land within the area of the Tar-Pamlico River Basin.