The Lower Neuse River Keeper is still recommending that people stay out of the rivers almost four weeks after Hurricane Irene moved through the east.
The water color is just one indication the rivers in New Bern are still healing. Normally the Neuse river is the color of weak tea.
Larry Baldwin, the Lower Neuse River Keeper, says the thing they are keeping the closest tabs on is the dissolved oxygen in the river, the oxygen aquatic life uses to breath.
Right after the storm it was below 5-percent, now it's at about 28-percent. Ideally Baldwin says it should be at 60-65 percent.
Baldwin says what would help the river now would be a fairly major rain event up river, so the fresh water could start to push this water out.
