Charlotte creek restoration initiative clears watershed 

CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG STORM WATER SERVICES

Workers with Mecklenburg County Storm Water Services inspect the banks along Irwin Creek in Charlotte. The Irwin Creek Stream Restoration Project is restoring 5,400 linear feet of the creek from below Interstate 85 to Statesville Avenue in west Charlotte

Irwin Creek quenched Charlotte’s thirst.

Its teeming springs nourished Black communities with fish and wildlife. It also was the site of swimming lessons and church baptisms. But Irwin also paid a price for Charlotte’s growth. Runoff from building materials, industrial facilities and aging infrastructure, have polluted its waters, part of a long history of environmental racism that disproportionately impact Black communities.

Mecklenburg County has roughly 3,000 miles of creeks, which if laid end to end would stretch from Charlotte to Vancouver, British Columbia, on Canada’s West Coast. Most of the creeks are barely noticeable, slow-flowing rivulets. 

Rashawna Huntley studies Irwin Creek. A UNC Charlotte graduate student, she’s partnering with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services to lead research through the Collegiate Water Monitoring program. Her research identified elevated E. coli levels and socioeconomic disparities along the watershed, which runs through Charlotte’s crescent to the urban core.

“A lot of the Black people that stay within Charlotte stay within Irwin Creek,” said Huntley, who earned her undergraduate degree at Johnson C. Smith University. “They stay in this area, so everyone’s kind of concentrated to this area. …And that’s slightly concerning, because with just the Irwin Creek watershed alone, we are behind the whole county.”

E. coli, according to the World Health Organization, is “bacteria that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms” and most strains are generally harmless in a healthy human gut. But contaminated food and water can contain fecal matter, bacteria, viruses, and parasites.

“If we ingest it, it can definitely make you sick, nausea, and a load of different health issues for humans,” said Matthew Peine, an environmental specialist with Storm Water Services. “You can see fish kills and further effects for animals that use the water, like deer, birds, and so on.”

There’s also resilience and renewal in Irwin Creek’s 30-mile ecosystem, from small ditches, storm drains and wooded areas that makes up a network in the heart of Charlotte. The Irwin Creek Stream Restoration Project, managed by Mecklenburg County Storm Water Services, is restoring 5,400 linear feet of the creek from below Interstate 85 to Statesville Avenue in west Charlotte by stabilizing its banks and stopping contamination from a former landfill.

Grants by North Carolina Land and Water Fund and the American Rescue Plan fund the initiative.

“For our stream restoration projects, including Irwin Creek, we aim to reduce the sediment, which is our number one pollutant here in North Carolina, and just increase water quality,” said Corrine Rizzo, a senior communication specialist involved in the project. 

The Charlotte region relies on drinking water from the Catawba River, specifically Mountain Island Lake and Lake Norman. Wildlife habitat is also impacted by the waterway’s health, which has been degraded by decades of neglect and abuse.

“Everybody who lives on our planet, the food web starts at our aquatic ecosystem,” Rizzo said. 

Added Taylor Mebane, an environmental specialist at Storm Water Services: “None of our streams here are graded for recreation or swimming.” 

Mecklenburg’s creeks are polluted. Water quality is measured by MPN, or most probable number, of microorganism levels. The federal recommended maximum is 126 MPN for safe, primary recreational water contact such as swimming. Levels above 886 MPN indicate high risk.

Data from Storm Water Services and Collegiate Water Monitoring show a 2025 annual average of 145.89 MPN per 100 milliliters for Irwin Creek, while the 10-year average is 213.3.

Huntley’s research found socioeconomic disparities within the watershed’s footprint, indicating poverty, low education levels, and a predominantly Black population. According to her findings, Irwin covers about 5.5% of Mecklenburg and a population density of approximately 2,350 people per square mile – encompassing roughly 8% of county residents. 

The disparities are found in the American Community Survey 2020 year-year estimates, which shows 32% of Mecklenburg residents are Black while 62% live in the Irwin Creek watershed.
Education attainment in the area is lower than the county average, with 86% of adults holding a high school diploma compared to 91% countywide. Poverty rates are also higher in the watershed area at 12.4%.

“They’re probably more susceptible to accidentally polluting streams,” Huntley said, “like running your laundry water down your driveway, is actually kind of detrimental. I (use) that example – that’s what I did growing up. I didn’t know our washing machine messed up, and we didn’t have the money to get the plumbing fixed, so we just tossed the water outside.”

Mebane contends it’s difficult to tie socioeconomics to water quality. 

“I will say environmental burden-wise, things like the proximity of a stream to a highly industrial area, or an area where they manufacture a lot of things and there's a lot of permitted facilities to discharge to streams,” she said. “Of course, those streams are going to end up being more impacted water quality-wise and hydrology-wise.”

Priority shifts to Irwin project

In an area with both socioeconomic disparities and water quality concerns, Mecklenburg County considers the watershed a high-priority zone. Huntley’s research shows that while predominantly Black neighborhoods are disproportionately affected, all of Mecklenburg is impacted as well as the Catawba River, where Irwin’s water drains. 

Decades of human alteration and influence are responsible for Irwin Creek’s condition. In the 20th century, it was adjusted to control water flow and prevent flooding in some areas, allow predictable drainage for agriculture, and make urban planning easier. The Mecklenburg initiative aims to restore the tributary’s natural character. 

“As early as the 1900s, Mecklenburg County residents, industrial and farmers, were going through our creek systems and straightening out or channelizing our creeks, which helped them control where the water was going, and either kept it away from where they didn't want it to be, and moved it away from development, made it easier to predict,” Rizzo said.

“Over time, this erosion began to happen. Straightening a creek means the water is going to move faster. It's going to pull in sediment like the exposed soil on the creek banks and that sediment, over time, has become our number one pollutant here in North Carolina. … That straightening created more and more erosion, and our goal is to go back through, restore it to its natural meanders or curves, different varying depths and different natural shapes so that the habitat can come back fully and the water quality can be improved.” 

The project keeps 1,000 tons of sediment – the equivalent of 100 fully-loaded dump trucks – out of the creek annually, Rizzo added.

Altering waterways degrades their natural cleansing systems. When water moves too fast, it creates land erosion that prevents surface water from purifying. Curvature allow the stream to move more slowly, stabilizing banks, reducing erosion, and limiting pollution. A major producer of sediment is connected to construction, which is exploding across Charlotte, one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States. 

“Sediment can create a cloudiness to the water that keeps sunlight out and prevents oxygen from being aerated into the water itself.” Rizzo said. 
Without oxygen, aquatic life can’t survive.

Sewage can enter creeks in several ways. During heavy rainfall, sewer lines or pumping stations may overflow, while broken pipes release wastewater directly into streams. Failing septic systems can seep into groundwater or surface drains, and runoff from human or animal waste can also carry contaminants into waterways. 

In addition to sewage, litter obstructs aquatic habitat and leaches toxins into water. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, “Microplastic particles are available for ingestion by a wide range of animals in the aquatic food web.

“Ingestion of microplastic particles can expose organisms to the chemicals used to produce the plastic material itself” as well as persistent organic pollutants, or POPs, that accumulate on plastic particles. Other contaminants, such as PFAS, or forever chemicals, have also raised concerns in water systems, though they are not specific to microplastics.

Another factor that makes it inhospitable for plants and animals is foams from fire extinguishers and flame-retardant chemicals that “lowers the water's ability to hold that dissolved oxygen, and it stresses the plants and the aquatic life that helps filter the water,” Huntley said.

Though visually pleasing, creeks pose environmental risks. Even brief contact can expose people and animals to contamination. Flash floods affect neighborhoods as well by lowering property values and exposing people to contaminants. People also use waterways for recreation. 

“How does it really impact those streams and creeks that people may be fishing and eating the fish that come out of there?” asked Jeffrey Robbins, executive director of Clean AIRE NC, an environmental advocacy nonprofit. “I hear every day that we all have PFAS in our bodies, microplastics, and I’m thinking, ‘wow, I don’t think anybody really understands the significance of that. Those heavy metals that kind of stick into the air that we know that are driven by industrial transportation and transportation pollution.” 

Soot, or particulate matter emitted from fossil fuels, rise into the atmosphere but eventually return to earth through rainfall into waterways.

Environmental justice springs forth

The Rev. Janet Garner-Mullins, an environmental justice advocate who focuses on racial equity, said pollution in burdened neighborhoods is common, such as a lack of tree canopy and an emphasis on building factories in lower income communities.

“The city or the county is giving permits to build factories,” she said. “They seem to always put those factories and businesses that emit toxic fumes into the Black and brown communities.” 
Storm Water Services has been monitoring creeks by doing routine checks for hot spots, responding to alerts, and communicating with the community while giving the burdened community equitable care in restoration efforts. 

Positive results have been reported from earlier restoration projects such as McDowell and Little Sugar creeks that improved water quality as well as recovery of plant and animal species. 

“There was a lot of turbidity in the cove that was impacting the drinking water,” Sikes said. “It takes time, but they do come back. Some more rare species come back [like] the Carolina Darter Little Sugar, so the surprise is how quickly nature bounces back after the demands that we put upon it. We hope to see the same type of improvement in Irwin over time that we've seen in McDowell and Little Sugar Creek.”
Huntley’s collaboration with students in the monitoring program is an effort to engage with communities and empower people to make informed decisions related to environmental justice and local impacts. 

“The long-term goal of this project is to have more student engagement on campus, which equals stakeholder engagement in the community,” she said.

JCSU sophomore Alexander Cromwell is one of those stakeholders. The sophomore computer engineering major also minors in sustainability and his involvement with Huntley’s research came from connections to the monitoring program. 

“People need to start taking a little bit more care about their communities because the amount of trash I’ve been seeing at these creeks…is a little crazy,” he said. “It made me realize that people don’t care as much as they thought they did… about taking care of the environment.” 

Said Huntley: “I hope that from this, students leave JCSU become aware of what a stakeholder is, and wherever you stay you can make better informed decisions.” 

Water monitoring helps manage pollution sources, especially resident alerts that contribute to identifying them. To get involved in recreational safety, message MECKNOSWIM to 888-777. To send an alert, call 311 or (704) 336-7600 between 7 a.m.-7 p.m. weekdays. 

For mobile devices and for 24-hour service, use the CLT+ app.

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