Extreme Flooding and Water Quality in the Lumbee River basin, NC: Implications for Vulnerable Populations

In October 2016, Hurricane Matthew brought more than 35 cm in rainfall in 24 hours and caused over $1.5 billion in damage to eastern North Carolina. The 3000 km² Lumbee River basin, located in southeastern NC, is home to over 60,000 members of the Lumbee Tribe of American Indians and the region has some of the highest densities of concentrated animal feeding operations in the United States. This region has high rates of poverty and large disparities in healthcare, education, and infrastructure, and the compromised infrastructure brought on by this extreme flooding increased the social and hydrologic vulnerability in the Lumbee River basin. To assess impacts of this extreme hydrologic event on water quality and society over the year following Hurricane Matthew, we collected water samples from co-located sources of surface, ground, and tap water across the Lumbee River watershed. In this substudy, we evaluated spatial and temporal variability in specific conductance, stable water isotopes (¹⁸O and ²H), nitrate, and coliforms (total coliforms and E. coli). Preliminary results show the evolution through time of water quality in each hydrologic pool as the system recovers from the floods and hydrologic connectivity recedes, thus improving our understanding of linkages between hydrologic connectivity and water quality.