North Wake News

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality's Division of Water Resources (DWR) has responded to an animal waste spill affecting Doctors Creek in Duplin County. The incident involved a significant spill from Murphy Brown LLC Farm 6703 & 6704, which is located on Kenan Loop Road in Wallace.

DWR staff were informed over the weekend about the malfunctioning equipment that was responsible for pumping waste between lagoons. This malfunction led to approximately 84,000 gallons of waste spilling into an unnamed tributary of Doctors Creek, which subsequently feeds into the Northeast Cape Fear River. The spill occurred from early Saturday, February 15, and continued until early Sunday, February 16.

In response to the incident, the permittee removed the waste from the tributary and returned it to a secondary lagoon on-site. DWR staff have verified these cleanup actions and conducted sampling at various points including the discharge point, upstream, and downstream areas to assess water quality impacts resulting from the spill. There are no known public water system surface water intakes along the affected path.

DWR will continue monitoring water quality in the area. Future actions taken based on this spill will be documented and made available in the permit file on Laserfiche.