West Bear Creek is a small tributary to Bear Creek located in eastern

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. The West Bear Creek

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

is a tiny contributing area of the Neuse River basin. The

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

of the area is mostly siliclastic sediments and organic soils. Deep groundwater is fed to the creek by the Black Creek

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characterist ...

. Land use in the area is mostly agriculture, although the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, the city of Goldsboro, and the town of La Grange are located with 10 to 15 miles of the creek. Because of the surrounding land use, West Bear Creek experiences large

nitrate Nitrate is a polyatomic ion A polyatomic ion, also known as a molecular ion, is a covalent bonded set of two or more atoms, or of a metal complex, that can be considered to behave as a single unit and that has a net charge that is not zer ...

fluxes, resulting in poor water quality. The site has been the focus of numerous research investigations on the fate and transport of nitrogen in groundwater. Further work will shed light on more details of this creek's

hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...

and the role agriculture plays in impaired water quality of streams.

References

Kennedy, C.D., L.C. Murdoch, D.P. Genereux, D.R. Corbett, K. Stone, P. Pham, and H. Mitasova (2010), Comparison of Darcian flux calculations and conventional seepage meter measurements in a sandy streambed in North Carolina, USA, Water Resources Research 46, W09501, doi:10.1029/2009WR008342. Kennedy C.D., D.P. Genereux, D.R. Corbett, and H. Mitasova (2009), Relationships among groundwater age, denitrification, and the coupled groundwater and nitrogen fluxes through a streambed, Water Resources Research 45, W09402, doi:10.1029/2008WR007400. Kennedy C.D., D.P. Genereux, D.R. Corbett, and H. Mitasova (2009), Spatial and temporal dynamics of coupled groundwater and nitrogen fluxes through a streambed in an agricultural watershed, Water Resources Research, 45, W09401, doi:10.1029/2008WR007397. Genereux, D.P., S. Leahy, H. Mitasova, C.D. Kennedy, and D.R. Corbett (2008), Spatial and temporal variability of streambed hydraulic conductivity in West Bear Creek, North Carolina, USA, Journal of Hydrology, 358, 332-353, doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2008.06.017. {{authority control Rivers of North Carolina