DURHAM, N.C. – Faculty members at the 91 Marine Lab in Beaufort, N.C., have partnered with the 91 Medical Center and UNC-TV to produce an interactive educational DVD and four five-minute news reports about water quality in North Carolina.

The first news report will air on UNC-TV June 20 during the station’s popular 7:30 p.m. “NC Now” newscast. It will focus on water quality in the state’s mountain region.

Three more segments, focusing on water quality in the Piedmont, the coastal region, and at Open Grounds Farm in Carteret County, will air on subsequent nights during the 7:30 newscast.

The interactive DVD, “North Carolina Water Quality: From the Mountains to the Sea,” will feature all four segments along with additional footage. It will be completed at the end of July and will be made available to schools, museums, public officials and other interested parties.

“As educators, the Nicholas School community can be very proud of these materials. They do an excellent job of simply but accurately explaining a complex issue and focusing on possible solutions to it,” said William H. Schlesinger, James B. Duke Professor of Biogeochemistry and dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.

The North Carolina Division of Water Quality funded the news reports and DVD through a Federal Section 319 Nonpoint Source Grant to conduct research and public outreach about water quality on the South River in Carteret County.

William W. Kirby-Smith, associate professor of the practice of marine ecology at the Marine Lab, is principal investigator on the grant and serves as the featured scientist on the coastal water quality section.

Steve Desper, administrative director of outpatient services at the Duke Medical Center and research associate at the Duke Marine Lab, is Kirby-Smith’s co-principal investigator. Desper narrates the news reports and DVD.