CONETOE. "It's just that d--n simple-whether we have a nice growing community here or just some simple little farms," Hassell Thigpen, chairman of the Edgecombe County commissioners, said Wednesday as he conducted newsmen on a tour of a channelized water project.

The tour, arranged by Thigpen and conducted by area farmers, was made to show some effects of a "channelized" environment. The Conetoe Creek Watershed was channelized in 1965-66 at a cost of some $1.6 million, an expansion of a project first begun in 1939.

In recent years, such channelization projects have met with increasing opposition from environmental groups who have charged that channelization destroys fish and wildlife habitats, upsets the ecological balance, and decreases the possibility of the natural order being restored.

Chicod Creek is currently being proposed for some 66 miles of "channelized" streams and waterways, but is now just a "paper project" due to environmental challenges lodged against proposed channelization.

Thigpen, in a letter of invitation to area newsmen, stated, "Only a very incomplete picture of channelization has been available or presented to-the news media of our country. This has resulted," he said, in what he termed "a generally unfavorable report to the public."

The Conetoe Creek Watershed extends from above Coakley in rural Edgecombe County to the Tar River south of Belvoir in Pitt County and includes four main laterals in its 64,000 acres: Mitchell Creek, Ballahack Creek, Crisp Creek, and Fountain Fork Creek-almost all of which are located in Edgecombe County. There are more than 100 miles of channelized streams-ranging from creeks to canals to ditches-in the Conetoe Creek system. All are farmer-maintained by members of the Edgecombe County Drainage District No. 2.

Thigpen claims, "This watershed *** has a better balanced environment than existed prior to channel improvements. It is a healthier and more pleasant place to live, with more and better fish and wildlife."

A tour of the watershed-limited in scope by time and extent of the watershed-would seem to bear out many of these claims.

Thigpen admitted to being disturbed by environmental charges lodged against the proposed channelization project of Chicod Creek, but admitted he had little knowledge of that area. “I just can't quite believe some 60 miles of channelization will destroy all the wildlife in Chicod Creek," commented Thigpen during the tour Wednesday.

About his own area's Conetoe Creek Watershed, Thigpen was high in its praise although noting there were still some problems to be solved and admitting, frankly, "there's still a lot of learning going on around here."

Thigpen told newsmen "If the taxpaying public is just willing to spend a little extra money, there's just no end to what can be done," describing the possibilities as "unlimited."

Noting environmental considerations are so important today, Thigpen declared "I can't see where we've hurt the environment just because we've taken care of the excess surface water.

"A drainage system is just as important to a farming area as a storm drainage system is to a city," said Thigpen.

"It's a simple matter to me," he said. "I believe in modifying the environment for people, as well as protecting the environment for people."

Phil Edwards, a Soil Conservation Service biologist from Raleigh who accompanied the tour, explained Conetoe Creek's Watershed drainage system acts primarily to carry off excess water and not to lower the area's water table as many believe.

With adequate drainage-although farmers admitted the kind of flood which may occur once in 15 years could not be handled by the system--the farmers have been able to plant more crops, and with use of channelized ditching decrease the number of their fields into larger, more easily handled ones.

Henry Britt, an area farmer, described the savings from fewer but larger fields as "tremendous." He and Thigpen have independently channelized a stream to serve their farms. In doing so Thigpen reduced 16 fields to 3 fields with good drainage and Britt reduced 6 fields into 1 large field.

Most of the channelized streams (channelized usually refers to machine created or dug) seen Wednesday were overgrown with vegetation-some to the extent of covering the creek bottoms and thus serving as fish spawning grounds. Bass and other fish could be seen in the canals of the system.

Another channelized stream-used by North Carolina State University in its experiments-was completely free of creek bottom vegetation. Thigpen said the Conetoe Creek area needed something in between a clear bottom and one choked with vegetation.

Edwards said some vegetation was desirable. The question, he said, was, How much vegetation and how to control it? It was noted trees often make good foliage for the channelized banks due to the fact they retard growth of some aquatic vegetation along the banks yet aid against erosion.

Thigpen opined there is "no reason we can't have drainage and have better wildlife than we ever had before." Thigpen described the fish and wildlife benefits as incidental to the original project plans, but noted fish, squirrel, rabbit, quail and even deer were in the area now.

Overall, Thigpen described the project as giving area farmers "a reasonable probability of making a decent living." He later said the project was doing a "pretty satisfactory job of permitting us to make a living."

During a luncheon, a former county agent said the Conetoe area was a "real problem" due to flooding in the 1930's and the area had a "bad reputation" as the "rundown part of the county." Now, he said. it is one of the most productive parts of the county.

Britt opined-concerning the cost of the watershed to area residents-that when Hurricane Ginger came through last year, that without Conetoe Creek Watershed "We'd have lost more than it cost to build the whole damn system." Residents have benefited in other ways. Drainage has permitted the building of some new homes due to the ability now to install septic tanks and unproductive land has been made productive.

"Give us a couple of feet of dry land and we can work anywhere," declared Thigpen of drainage capabilities of the Conetoe Creek system.

Conetoe Creek's Watershed, a $1.6 million project, completed in 1965-66, provides area Edgecombe County farmers with the drainage capabilities to put unproductive low-lying land under cultivation as well as derive incidental benefits such as increased fish and wildlife, according to Hassell Thigpen, chairman of the Edgecombe County board of commissioners. Above, Conetoe Creek curves toward its juncture with the Tar River. (Photo by Claude Starling)