Stocking Head Creek
What’s in the water?
A civil rights settlement forced DEQ to sample Duplin County waterways for pollution. The hard part is pinpointing the source.
Stocking Head Creek was up, licking the bottom of the bridge on NC Highway 50. An inch and a quarter of rain had fallen in the past two days, and the high water, the color of umber, scaled tree trunks and inundated swamps. At the storm's peak, the creek must have reached the road, because the grass along the shoulder was combed over and had yet to stand back up.