E-4 Shellfish Growing Area—Actual and
Potential Pollution Sources

The National Shellfish Sanitation Program (NSSP) was created in 1925 following typhoid fever outbreaks in Chicago; New York; Washington, D.C.; and several other cities. These outbreaks were linked to polluted shellfish. Shellfish (oysters, clams, and mussels) are filter feeders that can concentrate pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The North Carolina Shellfish Sanitation and Recreational Water Quality Section, along with North Carolina's Division of Marine Fisheries and county health departments, is responsible for the way shellfish are produced, stored, transported, processed, sold, and served in North Carolina.

The North Carolina Shellfish Sanitation Program operates under NSSP guidelines and is a cooperative program involving state, federal, and industry representatives that sets minimum standards and guidelines for the harvest of molluscan shellfish. Consumption of raw shellfish necessitates high water quality standards. To improve the identification of pollution sources that might affect the shellfish growing area's water quality, the Shellfish Sanitation Section within North Carolina's Division of Environmental Health obtained a grant with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to refine the methodology of shoreline surveys.

This map is part of the new methodology used in the shoreline survey that spatially illustrates failing septic systems and other sources of pollution within shellfish growing areas and meets the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference requirements for shellfish shipping between states. This pollution source information is combined with water quality data to produce triennial growing area sanitary surveys.

The development of GIS data layers through GPS identifies storm water conveyances, dockage facilities, failing septic systems, pump stations and wastewater treatment plants, farm animals and wildlife, residential subdivisions, and other actual or potential pollution sources that may impact shellfish growing areas. This information provides accurate locations, detailed attributes, and linked photography that can be used by the North Carolina Shellfish Sanitation and Recreational Water Quality Section and other agencies to assess and address public health issues associated with pollution sources in shellfish growing areas more effectively.