Northeast Creek Streamwatch

Four people met at the Parkwood Branch Library

Rezoning Application Update

Jordan at Southpoint

This is the proposed residential development bordering 751 and Scott King Road in Durham County. At one point it was proposed as a “conservation subdivision,” but that has apparently been abandoned now. The City has received a request to annex the property, which is required to obtain water and sewer. We stated our position when the rezoning request was first made. Individuals are free to reiterate that position at the December 3 City Council meeting.

T.W. Alexander Drive

An office park is planned on Alexander northeast of the intersection with Alston. The developer has ignored community requests for adequate buffering of Burdens Creek. Members should feel free to comment on this rezoning request.

Parkwood Christmas Parade

The group is going to be in the Parkwood Christmas Parade, on the December 2 at 2pm (the rain date is December 9th); the parade route is along Sedwick and Revere to the Library. The Northeast Creek Streamwatch unit will have a 9′ heron puppet in breeding plumage with an 8′ wingspan, youth dressed as rain drops, a beaver, and a fox. We still are looking for someone to be the heron. The Parkwood Association is going to print cards for us. So far there are 10-12 people are planning to participate. The staging area will probably be Newhall Rd. after 12:30, with sign up and transportation at the Parkwood Association office, by the Library.

The final preparation of the heron puppet is going to be a part of the craft program in the Library’s big meeting room this Friday from 2 to 6, and could use help if you have time available.

Stream Monitoring

The winter testing is coming up. We won’t have the City’s test kit until next week, so we could start at Sedwick and Grandale next weekend. We now have tests for chlorine and copper pollution, and refills for what was low after September. We can contact the Scouts to see if they want to be involved. Parkwood Elementary might also want information about monitoring.

City of Durham Waterways newsletter

We are trying to work out having an article about Northeast Creek Streamwatch in the spring issue; Waterways is distributed with the City of Durham water bill.

Adopting Bridges and Storm Drains

For the City stream watch program, we need to visually look at storm drains and other outflows into the creek monthly. There are hardly any on the main channels of the creek itself, but many on the tributaries. We will have a map of the storm drains available at the next meeting. We should also do visual monitoring at bridges over the creek, so we could see how the water looks monthly, in case of sewer overflows, and similar occurrence.

Five people met at the Parkwood Library.

Website Update

Work continues on the updated website.

NC Big Sweep

Big Sweep is Saturday, October 6th (as is the Parkwood Flea Market), and the meeting place for that will be in front of the Parkwood Library at 9am. A member is organizing teams to go to several places in or near Parkwood, such as the Creek at Sedwick, Grandale, and NC 54, the tributary behind the Library and at McCormick near Auburndale. The Boy Scouts are going to be involved this time, and the Girl Scouts are being contacted.

Adopting a Road

DOT has not been very helpful even though it’s their program. Apparently city roads are not eligible for adoption, so we will try Grandale or O’Kelley Church Road.

The summer water testing was done in late June and July at our 5 usual sites. We expanded the ammonia monitoring and did dissolved oxygen and biological oxygen demand (BOD) testing at more sites.

There is a lot going on in Northeast Creek because it is the height of summer. Some highlights we saw were several young darters or sculpins, other fish, mussels, and lots of water boatmen in the creek above Sedwick, a crayfish and a young Asiatic clam downstream from NC 55 (which I thought was a degraded section of the Creek), and a stinkpot turtle and a firepink at Sohi.

Four people met at the Parkwood Library.

Library Meeting Room Fee

The Library has imposed a fee of $50 for use of the large meeting room, which impacts us if we want to have larger events there.

The Durham People’s Alliance is going to formally complain about the new fee for using meeting rooms at the Durham libraries and Northeast Creek Streamwatch will be asked to sign petitions and letters. The Parkwood Volunteer Fire Department and the Peace Covenant Church have offered us free meeting space if we can’t use Parkwood Library.

Road Cleanup

We decided this is something we should look into, for example along Sedwick near the Creek. There would be two cleanups a year, and we would get a sign saying we adopted that stretch of road. We also discussed the need to get the state Stream Watch signs up.

Website Changes

A member is going to take over running the website from the current webmaster, who is now too busy, and the site is going to be moved to
www.northeastcreek.org with a different format.

Jordan Lake Water Quality Hearing

The NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Water Quality Division hosted a hearing about proposed regulations of the tributaries to Jordan Lake aimed at improving the water quality in the lake. Several of our members attended and and spoke up.

Non-profit Status

We reviewed the presentation from last month and identified tasks. The next step is to find people to account for money, materials, and volunteer hours so far.

Five people met in the small meeting room of the Parkwood Library.

Rezoning Application Updates

Commercial Office Development on T.W. Alexander Drive in RTP

Three members went to a meeting with the developers on this project and spoke about it at the meeting. The project is near Burdens Creek, a tributary of Northeast Creek that flows in just upstream of the Triangle Wastewater Treatment Plant on Highway 55. Half of the project is above the floodplain, including a planned large parking lot, which will be a buffer about 200’ wide for the creek if the parking lot doesn’t encroach on it.

Fayetteville Road and Massey Chapel Road

This is the cleared area where a church daycare wants to expand. The site is actually in the Crooked Creek watershed. Some members have written to the County Commissioners to ask for more buffering on the property, but otherwise there weren’t major objections.

Jordan at Southpoint

The development plan has been withdrawn so theproposed development would either have to use thecurrent zoning of rural residential (2 houses per acre) or it would exploit the “conservation subdivision” elements of the Unified Development Ordinance to get higher densities within the current zone. There was discussion of how this was not conservation at all.

Fayetteville Assemblage

The grading of the site plan has not yet been approved by the County Design Review Board.

Lowes Grove Elementary School Comprehensive Plan Change

The County will build the replacement for Parkwood Branch Library at this site, and plans to set aside land for an EMS station on one
part of the site and offer the southern part, next Highway 54 for commercial development. Two members are participating in the community group that wants the southern part for community uses, since the site will be next to a library and two schools.

There is now a petition for the community uses and I think it is available at the Parkwood Association’s office.

UNC Study

The group at UNC studying how to reduce fecal coliform bacteria levels in Northeast Creek has created a model and produced a set of options and estimated their costs and how effective each option would be. The figures that were that the creek is 43% above the state’s limit upstream of the treatment plant and 30% over the limit downstream (the reduction is because the treatment plant’s outflow increases the volume of water in the creek). The fecal coliform can be reduced by prevention through pulic education about how fecal coliform gets in the creek, cleaning up pet waste and butchered deer parts, streetsweeping, and allowing stormwater to settle in buffers before going downstream (which could also reduce other pollution and storm surges also). The Triangle Waste Treatment plant has been judged to be about as good as it can be after recent upgrades. I think the Clean Water Act and other rules or lawsuits means something will have to be done about this level of pollution. Each creek is different, but this general analysis could be applied to other creeks in the region. Possibly Northeast Creek Streamwatch could qualify for grants as part of a cleanup effort, for example to carry out the education aspect of the plan, when it becomes incorporated as a non-profit.

Parkwood Flea Market

The fall Parkwood Flea Market is in early October, at the same time as the annual Big Sweep. Contacts asked the Soil and Water Commission about selling rain barrels there, but they said the manufacturer has a backlog and can’t supply the expected demand here for now.

Affiliations

We are already registered with the State Stream Watch program for Northeast Creek between the area behind Parkwood Elementary School to just downstream of Grandale. Now we are also registered with the Durham City program for the area between Highway 55 and Jordan Lake. We agreed
that this group should be involved throughout the drainage basin, but until we are more involved at the upstream end of the Creek, we can leave that area out of our official City adoption proposal.

Six people met in the small meeting room of the Parkwood Library.

NC Big Sweep 2007

October 6 is the date of NC Big Sweep, and it is being advertised in the Parkwood
Inside/Out newsletter.

Earth Day Cleanup Report

About 30 people participated, cleaning up trash along the tributary in Parkwood between Seaton Road and Parkwood Lake, at Grandale, and also at Sedwick. A followup article was in the Inside/Out.

Durham Adopt-a-Stream Status Update

There was a question about whether we are registered with the City’s Adopt-a-Stream program, which the chair will handle.

Non-profit Status Update

There was discussion of progress toward getting non-profit status.

Rezoning Applications and New Developments

Jordan at Southpoint

There was an update of the status of this rezoning action.

Highway 54 Condominiums

This is a high-density development to be built on a hilly section along a tiny tributary on the edge of the floodplain abutting Parkwood, between Blanchard Rd. and the Triangle Pharmacy and True Value Hardware. Some of us individually sent letters in opposition, but the Parkwood Association and
adjacent residents did not oppose it. Supposedly the wooded part of the site at the back will not be developed. The risk is that it will remove pretty old deciduous forest and it will probably be a high risk for silt pollution, so we will watch it. Hopefully we can rescue some plants
before it is built.

Angier Haven

This development is not within the Northeast Creek watershed. It is a conversion from commercial to multi-family in a built-up area. We will not comment on he rezoning.

Rain Barrels for Sale at the fall Parkwood Flea Market

There was discussion of exploring whether the County Soil and Water Conservation program would be willing to do this.

Four people met in the small meeting room of the Parkwood Library.

NC Big Sweep 2007

There was discussion of which sites to clean if we had enough volunteers and how it should be advertised.

IBM Earth Week Tabling

We made sure we were prepared and discussed what to do and who would table when. This event apparently is combined with IBM’s bring-your-kids-to-work day.

Rezoning Application Update

Jordan at Southpoint Rezoning Application Update

There was an update that reported about where the proposed site is and some of details. The proposal is for 219 lots of 1/16th to about ½ an acre on 100 acres or so of land that contains two minor tributaries of Northeast Creek and is adjacent to the Corps of Engineers land for Crooked Creek.

Fayetteville Assemblage

Toll Brothers Homes is the builder. This is in the Crooked Creek watershed, and the developer has requested County Commission approval to bridge Crooked Creek as part of the development. Because it is Crooked Creek, Northeast Creek Streamwatch will not comment officially, but individuals are encouraged to investigate what is proposed and comment.

UNC Study of Fecal Coliform Total Minimum Daily Loads (TMDL) of Northeast Creek Update

This study is not complete. When it is, the study group will present the results to Northeast Creek Streamwatch.

Five members marked the flame azaleas at the Duke Energy substation near the Triangle Waste Treatment plant. We also picked up a lot of litter on Alston Avenue near the substation. The chair followed up by calling Duke Energy’s right-of-way contact to let him know that the plants had been marked.

Northeast Creek Streamwatch had a table at this event for IBM families. The table included animals to touch, wildflowers to identify, archaeological artifacts from the Northeast Creek watershed, and information about Northeast Creek and Northeast Creek Streamwatch.

Six people met in the small meeting room at the Parkwood Library at 7pm.

Non-Profit Status

There was some discussion of what the group would need to have non-profit status, especially what constituencies to have represented on the board. People are looking into getting information about this from the Waterkeepers Alliance.

Rezoning Applications

Scott Mill Rezoning Case Follow-Up

The rezoning decision was split 2-2, so it failed to pass.

Rezoning Application for a Development Proposed between NC 751 and Scott King Road

A member reported this development, Jordan at Southpoint. Northeast Creek Streamwatch wrote a letter to the Planning Commission requesting buffers, preservation of the farm pond on the property. We did not receive the necessary notification at first, but we have it now.

Rezoning Application for Washington Terrace at Riddle Road and NC 55

This application, which is for industrial-to-commercial rezoning has been resubmitted.

East Durham Connector Update

The State DOT chose the third option, which is not the worst one, but is not great either. People who went to the DOT public hearings had the impression that the DOT wanted to tell the public what it would do, not get feedback it would consider.

Parkwood Library Bulletin Board

One member has encouraged the Parkwood Library to have a bulletin board for photos of trees in Parkwood. The Parkwood Library is looking for additional photos so that this bulletin boad can be changed with the seasons.

Monthly Hikes

Monthly hikes are coming up, and the group is looking for suggested locations. There is an upcoming hike on March 17 with the following one on April 12. An earlier hike visited the very large tree near the Creek near Highway 54 and Euclid Road, and people reported that it is an oak of some kind.

EPA Online Resources for Volunteer Monitoring

A member mentioned three useful articles in the EPA’s Volunteer Monitor, available online.

Audubon Park Stream Monitoring

A member is trying to organize volunteers from Audubon Park to do the Sedwick stream monitoring and reported that there was an article about it in the Audubon Park Homeowners Association newsletter.

Western Wake Parkway

There was a discussion of the need for DOT to reduce sediment runoff from construction of Western Wake Parkway (I-540), but the sense is that the design decisions might have been made already.

Earth Day Update

There were updates of the work toward Earth Day. There have been no changes to the previous plan. The cleanup will start at 9pm on April 21st at Grandale Road and will include cleanups in Parkwood. We talked about the experience of cleanups along Chapel Hill’s Bolin Creek.