Northeast Creek Streamwatch

The City of Durham has drafted a Water Quality Recovery Program Plan for Northeast Creek. The citizen review of this document is September 9, 2009, 6:30 pm at City Hall. Here is the draft document for your review:

Water Quality Recovery Program Plan PDF (27 pp, 568K)

For more information, contact Michelle.Woolfolk), 919-560-4326 ext 30219

Kayak Adventures has announced:

Saturday, June 6, 7:00-10:30pm — Sunset-Full Moon Paddle on Jordan lake to benefit Haw River Assembly. The prices is $30 per person and includes equipment, instruction, guide, hot dog roast at island campfire and smores. Adults and teens. Contact 919-929-3805 for details and reservations.

Three Northeast Creek Streamwatch members attended the Joint Durham City/County Stormwater Citizens Participation Group meeting for the water quality recovery plans for Third Fork Creek and Northeast Creek. Present were soil and water conservation staff, city stormwater staff, representatives from UNC-Chapel Hill, and neighborhood groups interested in the water quality of Northeast Creek and Third Fork Creek.

Some buzzwords and acronyms you might hear

303(d) list - a federally required list of waters that do not meet water quality standards that the state of North Carolina has set for them even after point sources of pollution, such as private, corporate and public sewage treatment plants have installed the minimum required level of technology.

BMP - best management practice, a structure (such as a retention pond) or an activity that is judged as effective in reducing pollutants

POC - pollutant of concern

TMDL - total maximum daily load of pollutants permitted by state and federal law and TMDL plans.

About Northeast Creek

Northeast Creek flows into Jordan Lake and is subject to the Jordan Lake TMDL and management strategy. The Jordan Lake TMDL requires reductions of nitrogen and phosphorus from the Northeast Creek watershed. Previously there was a TMDL specific to Northeast Creek for fecal coliform bacteria. Pollutants on the 2008 draft 303(d) list include turbidity (suspended solid particles), low dissolved oxygen, and nitrates/nitrites. In addition, the City of Durham, the NC Division of Water Quality (NC DWQ), the Upper Cape Fear River Basin Association (UCFRBA), and the US Geological Survey (USGS), which are monitoring Northeast Creek, have found other pollutants; specifically, copper has been found at levels higher than “action level” standards. Another pollutant of concern is polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which often occur from runoffs from parking lots sealed with compounds containing these compounds.

The NC DWQ has issued stormwater permits in the Northeast Creek watershed for Glaxo-Wellcome, National Specialty Gases, and SCM Metal Products.

Best management practice (BMP) structures in the Northeast Creek watershed include wet and dry stormwater detention ponds, bioretention areas, and constructed wetlands. All of these structures provide control of peak stormwater flows.

Non-structural best management practices in the Northeast Creek watershed include watershed-specific public education and outreach, prioritization of illicit discharge detection and elimination, prioritization of industrial inspections, increased frequency of street sweeping, encouraging homeowner and community rain gardens, and encouraging the use of low-impact development techniques. Each of these has the potential to decrease pollution reaching Northeast Creek.

There are two USGS stream guages on Northeast Creek. The first is on SR 1100 (Grandale Road) near Northeast Creek Streamwatch’s monitoring site. The second is on the north prong of Northeast Creek on SR 1182 (Fletcher-Carpenter Road).

The City of Durham is required to identify and map the locations of known major outfalls (stormwater pipes greater than 12 inches in diameter) that have the possibility of discharging pollutants, especially POCs, into impaired waters or tributaries of impaired waters. The City of Durham is currently identifying those outfalls in Northeast Creek. Work began in 2008 and continues into 2010.

The next steps in this process include the creation of a water quality monitoring plan, a conceptual model of the interaction of polluting sources in Northeast Creek and Third Fork Creek, identification of best management practices, and a cost/benefit analysis of the best management practices to determine which the study will recommend for the City and County to pursue.

The following statement reflects the position of the members of Northeast Creek Streamwatch, as expressed at our last meeting.

Northeast Creek Streamwatch (www.northeastcreek.org) is concerned about the County Commissioners’ decision to accept a survey of Jordan Lake’s critical watershed funded by an interested developer.

This is an obvious conflict of interest, and the survey benefits the developer, while putting about 350 other Durham properties into the protected area. The Commissioners, other than Heron and Reckhow, are setting a bad precedent for the creeks around Jordan Lake. The proposed high-density 751 Assemblage will make it harder to improve water quality at that end of the Lake, which has been on the EPA’s Impaired Waters list since 2002, as well as increasing traffic on gridlocked Stagecoach Road and smog, in an otherwise forested rural area.

Northeast Creek Streamwatch supports the Durham County Manager, Planning Director, Attorney, and the Chatham County Commissioners in advocating an independent survey. I think this is coming before the Commissioners again this month and there is still time to ask Julie Ventaloro, at the State Division of Water Quality, to reject the County’s decision. Proponents of the survey argued that this saves money, but what about the future costs of cleaning up Jordan Lake, extra costs for treating drinking water, and the public infrastructure needed for new development on Durham’s periphery?

Michael Pollock
for Northeast Creek Streamwatch

During Northeast Creek Streamwatch’s environmental education tabling at the Piedmont Wildlife Center Festival at Leigh Farms Park. This event launched the career of the Paw-Paws, the unofficial Northeast Creek chorus, now numbering three or four, with this song:

Down by the Creek,
where the scavenging raccoons,
back to their home
I dare not loom.
For if I did,
my mother would squeak,
“Have you ever seen the sediment?
What an impediment!!
Down by the Creek.

Down by the Creek
where the paw-paw blooms
lives a little zebra
who zigs, zags, and zooms.
Who knew a zebra
could waft and sail?
Not a mammal, silly
Zebra Swallowtail!
…

Lots of folks from all over the Triangle got to hear about Northeast Creek, and we got to hang out with other environmental and watershed groups.

Northeast Creek Streawatch had a float in the Parkwood Christmas Parade. Special thanks to Kayak Adventures for the truck, kayaks, and
canoe. To David Bobo for locating a boat trailer. To the Girls Enrichment Ministries kids and the Parkwood Library Craft Program kids for filling the canoe. And to the Parkwood Children’s Librarian for donning the beaver costume and walking the route. Thanks also to the Northeast Creek Streamwatch members who helped pull this together.

Michael Pollock provided information about the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Stream Watch program. A Stream Watch is a group of volunteer stream monitors who commit to monitoring a stream location quarterly. There was enough interest that the first meeting of Northeast Creek StreamWatch was on October 26, 2005.