operation geared toward the production of tobacco pouches. This new operation, the Erwin Mill, would prove a turning point, not only in the history of Dye Branch, but also in the history of Durham as a whole. The building of Erwin Mills in 1893 created the mill village which would one day become Durham. This village and its mill meant devastation for water quality and quantity in Dye Branch for the next 90 years. Erwin Mill, built on the banks of the Dye Branch tributary poured chemical dyes into the small drainage, even as the progressive development of the area meant the small brook began to lose its natural meander. As the 1950s arrived, and the construction of North Carolina’s I-85 came to completion, urban water run-off and impervious surfaces also became sources of creek pollution. Erwin Mills closed in 1986. Within a few years the Durham Freeway was completed, bisecting the former Erwin Park and Monkey Bottom. Most of the mill buildings were demolished. On part of the site in the late 1980s the Erwin Square office building was erected. By the 1990s, urban housing once centered on the mill and the jobs it provided, dominated the landscape up and down Dye Branch. The nature of the relationship between the small river and its people changed once again. Where Erwin Mill simply used Dye Branch to carry off waste dye, the creek now faced many of the problems associated with all urban streams. Pollution Problems As it flows through Old West Durham, Dye Branch is surrounded by various auto and muffler shops, large surface parking lots, a plumbing shop, funeral home, photo studio, small apartment complex, a chemical storage facility, Southern Railroad, Business Hwy 70, a Duke warehouse, and an old gas station. Many of these sites have direct run-off into the creek. The storm drains in the vicinity lead directly into the creek as well (pairs of storm drains near Hillsborough and Anderson streets are easy to spot). As it flows through the Walltown neighborhood, the creek has actually cut deeply into the soil, causing property damage, and creating dangers for residents. There is also a large "dye pond" surrounded by a screened fence near the creek. The dye pond remains from the Erwin textile mill. Run-off from the mill operations used to flow into the neighborhood (apparently, in the past, the area often smelled like a big