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Health officials in North Carolina and Virginia have lifted the recreational water advisories for sections of the Roanoke River and Lake Gaston.

Those advisories are related to the South Hill, VA warehouse fire on July 6 where agricultural-use chemicals were stored. The effort to extinguish that blaze resulted in run-off into creeks and streams that feed into the Roanoke River and Meherrin River.

The advisory for the Meherrin River was lifted last week.

Per the Roanoke River/Lake Gaston advisory, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality has observed no evidence of impacts to drinking water at this time.

From the Virginia Department of Health:

“VDH considered several factors prior to lifting these advisories to protect public safety, to include field observations from environmental field staff, weather conditions (rainfall), and surface water sampling to monitor concentrations of contaminants. The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been testing these creeks and river since the event to assist in the evaluation of the impacts of these chemicals on public health. Based on the above factors, recreational use and fish consumption activities may resume.”

The advisories were issued out of an abundance of caution. Chemicals stored at the warehouse included fuel, fertilizers, herbicides and many others.

The site has since been fully contained eliminating chemicals from the incident entering the environment.

Swimming or other activities in any natural body of water always pose some health risk because the water is not disinfected. Children under the age of five years, older adults, and those with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of contracting illness from natural bodies of water.