In the mid-1980s, the Pamlico River estuary saw an increase in problems that pointed to excessive levels of nutrients in the water—harmful algal blooms, low oxygen levels, increased numbers of fish kills, and other symptoms of stress and disease. The Pamlico River forms the estuarine portion of the Tar-Pamlico River Basin. The basin is one of three main feeders to the nation’s second largest estuary, the Albemarle-Pamlico sound system.

 The Pamlico River estuary was eventually placed on the 303(d) list for chlorophyll a, driven by excess nutrient concentrations contributed by agricultural runoff and point sources. In response, the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission designated the Tar-Pamlico River Basin as “Nutrient Sensitive Waters” and called for a strategy to reduce nutrient inputs from around the basin. The strategy’s first phase, which ran from 1990 through 1994, produced an innovative pointsource/nonpoint source trading program that allows point sources, such as wastewater treatment plants and industrial facilities, to achieve reductions in nutrient loading in more cost-effective ways. The second phase established a plan to reduce nitrogen by 30 percent (from 1991 levels) and hold phosphorus loadings to 1991 levels based on estuarine conditions by 2006.

 In addition to point sources, Phase II called on nonpoint sources to contribute to meeting these goals and established a set of nonpoint source rules addressing agriculture, urban stormwater, and fertilizer management across all land uses and calling for riparian buffer protection. Between1991 and 2003, farmers installed water control structures to treat 32,200 acres of cropland and buffers to treat 72,000 acres and planted scavenger crops on 81,500 acres. In addition, many farmers reduced fertilizer use and implemented conservation tilling practices to help meet the goal. The third phase of the nutrient strategy is under development.

Partners involved in the effort were North Carolina Division of Water Quality, Soil and Water Conservation Districts, North Carolina Division of Soil and Water Conservation, North Carolina Cooperative Extension, USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service, North Carolina Department of Agriculture, North Carolina Farm Bureau, North Carolina State University, and agricultural community and commodity groups.  The North Carolina Environment Management Commission brought together stakeholder groups of affected parties and provided the participants with a chance to express differing viewpoints. Stakeholders involved in the process included environmental groups, municipalities, developers, businesses, and the public. The North Carolina Agriculture Cos Share Program, administered by the Division of Soil and Water Conservation, contributed$12.5 million between 1992 and 2003. Another DSWC-administered program, the federal Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, has obligated approximately $33.1 million in the Tar-Pamlico River Basin since 1998. Between1995 and 2003, approximately $2,670,000in Clean Water Act section 319 expenditures were directed toward nonpoint source projects in the Tar-Pamlico Basin. As part of the Phase I Agreement, the area’s Point Source Association both contributed funds and acquired a section 104(b)(3) grant for agricultural BMP implementation. The combined total of their contributions was $850,000 in nutrient reducing BMPs in the basin.