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Dep. of Botany, North Carolina State Univ., Box 7612, Raleigh, NC 27695-7612;
Center for Marine Science Res., Univ. of North Carolina, Wilmington, NC 28403.
* Corresponding author (joann.burkholder{at}ncsu.edu).
ABSTRACT
We tracked a swine waste spill (4.13 x 107 L) into a small receiving river and estuary. After 2 d, a 29-km freshwater segment that the wastes had traversed was anoxic, with ca. 4000 dead fish floating and hung in shoreline vegetation. Suspended solids, nutrients, and fecal coliforms were 10- to 100-fold higher at the plume's edge (71.7 mg SS/L, 39.6 mg NH+4-N/L, and >1 x 106 cfu/100 mL, respectively; cfu, colony forming units, SS; suspended solids) than in unaffected reference sites. Elevated nutrients and an oxygen sag from the plume reached the main estuary after ca. 5 d. Increased phytoplankton production was contributed by noxious algae, Synechococcus aeruginosa and Phaeocystis globosa (108 and 106 cells/mL, respectively) after 7 to 14 d. The toxic dinoflagellates, Pfiesteria piscicida and a second Pfiesteria-like species, increased to potentially lethal densities (103 cells/mL) that coincided with a fish kill and ulcerative epizootic. After 14 d, water-column fecal coliforms generally were at 102 to 103 cfu/100 mL. But where the plume had hovered for the first 5 d, surface sediments mostly yielded 
104 cfu/100 mL slurry, and after 61 d densities in surficial sediments were still at 103 to 104 cfu/100 mL. Dinoflagellate and euglenoid blooms developed and moved downestuary, where they were detected after 61 d. This study documented acute impacts to surfacewaters from a concentrated swine operation, and examined some environmental policies affecting the intensive animal operation industry.
L.M. Larsen, current address: Dep. of Biological Sciences, Campbell Univ., Box 308, Buies Creek, NC 27506.
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