News Briefs: New Estimates Show Extent of Hurricane Florence's Wastewater Discharges

A joint report by the The Charlotte Observer, The News & Observer and The Herald Sun recently sought to answer a reader’s question about how Hurricane Florence affected wastewater treatment plants in North Carolina and how much untreated or partially treated wastewater spilled. New figures show the discharges were worse than experts originally thought. The Department of Environmental Quality first submitted a report titled “Hurricane Florence Impact on Water and Wastewater Facilities” in November 2018, but the latest data shows that the 121 million gallons of untreated or partially treated sewage that spilled is about 28 percent more than that report estimated.