CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – Officials in a North Carolina county are trying to decide what to do with water from the U.S. National Whitewater Center blamed in the death of an Ohio teenager.
The Charlotte Observer reports Lisa Corbitt with Mecklenburg County’s groundwater and wastewater services said Wednesday one plan would be to treat the water and dump it in the Catawba River.
The center’s water contains the Naegleria fowleri amoeba blamed for the June 19 death of 18-year-old Lauren Seitz of Westerville, Ohio. Health officials think Seitz contracted the illness when she fell out of a raft at the center.
The amoeba is not dangerous when swallowed, but is when it enters the body through the nose.
Sam Perkins of the Catawba Riverkeepers said water from the center is a concern because of the amoeba’s potential dangers.
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