Northeast Creek Streamwatch

Three people attended the meeting at Parkwood Library.

751 Assemblage Update

The controversy over the re-survey of the Lake Jordan full-stage pool is of interest to Northeast Creek Streamwatch because the results of this might determine how similar controls might be applied in development applications for areas of Northeast Creek. Those areas of concern mostly lie in Chatham County, but the Durham County action could be a statewide precedent.

In the latest news, the developers have indeed sued Durham County, several BOCC commissioners individually, and the county attorney individually. The law firm handling the suit for the developers has come under press scrutiny because former County Commissioner Lewis Cheek is now practicing development and rezoning law for that firm, although by legal rules he must avoid conversations about this case. Haw River Assembly has contracted a separate survey (and is still accepting donations to cover the cost). On the comparison between the two surveys, County Manager Mike Ruffin claims that the state prefers that surveys of reservoirs use the method used by the developer’s surveyor.

Streamwatch Signs

NCDOT has put up “Northeast Creek” signs at the bridges on NC 54 and Sedwick Road. The meeting discussed putting the NCDWQ Stream Watch signs on the posts of these new signs. NCDWQ sent the Stream Watch signs directly to Northeast Creek Streamwatch.

National Night Out

Many neighborhoods in the Northeast Creek basin are going to observe National Night Out in August. The meeting discussed whether to try to table at these events.

Durham Public Schools - Scott King Road School Site

Northeast Creek Streamwatch is preparing a plan for Durham Public Schools for rescue of native plants, with a possible view to replanting some of them as the primary landscaping at the new school when constructed. Native plans have the advantage of being low maintenance and adapted to the local changes in the climate. This effort will require volunteers and training by those who have experience in plant rescue. It will require scheduling the appropriate time to rescue the plants from DPS property, coordination of entry of Northeast Creek Streamwatch volunteers with Durham Public Schools, storage of the rescued plants to be incorporated into the new school landscaping. We are currently trying to get the best information from those who are experienced in plant rescue and develop administrative means for handling scheduling, liability waivers, and coordination with DPS.

Calendar

August Monthly Meeting, August 26, 2009, 7pm, Small Conference Room, Parkwood Library
September Dragonfly Watching, to be announced
North Carolina Big Sweep Stream Cleanup - October 3, 9am - 11am, meet in Parkwood Library Parking Lot for assignment to teams

Two people met at the Parkwood Library.

Reports

The signs that were to be put up within the Durham city limits marking the Creek have not been put up yet; a member is checking with a contact at DOT about this.

Big Sweep is coming up in early October and we need to prepare for it.

There have been trash and drinking problems on the trail behind the Lotus Pond, and there are also bottles under the Grandale bridge.

Jordan Lake Boundary Survey

On June 9 the Durham Joint Planning Commission deferred their decision two months so the Haw River Assembly can fund a new survey. Haw River Assembly is still accepting donations. Commission Chair George Brine recused himself on this issue, after complaints by the developer’s lawyer. In the last few days the developer announced that it is suing Durham County for hindering the 751 Assemblage project.

City of Durham Water Quality Recovery Program Plan - Third Fork Creek and Northeast Creek

The last citizen advisory panel meeting for the spring was in May and based on the comments a plan on what to focus on and how will be prepared and presented in September. Third Fork Creek will be studied by Tetratech in the coming fiscal year. The plan ford Northeast Creek will detail the proposed actions to recover water quality on the creek.

Enviromapper

This EPA Geographic Information System shows catchments, the divisions within a basin.

Enviromapper link for Northeast Creek

Calendar

July Monthly Meeting: July 22, 7pm, Parkwood Library, Small Conference Room.

• June 6, 3:00pm, Stream Monitoring at the Grandale Bridge (meet at Parkwood Library parking lot)
• June 6, 7:00pm Kayak Adventures Paddle for Haw River Assembly
• June 9, 5:30pm, City Council Chambers, Durham City Hall, Durham City-County Planning Commission consideration of Jordan Lake boundary issue
• June 13, 3:00pm, Stream Monitoring at Sohi Road (meet at Parkwood Library parking lot)
• June 14, 3:00pm, Stream Monitoring at Highway 55 (meet at Parkwood Library parking lot)
• June 17, 7:00pm, Parkwood Library, Northeast Creek Streamwatch Monthly Meeting
• June 20, 3:00pm, Stream Monitoring at O’Kelly Church Road (meet at Parkwood Library)

Northeast Creek Streamwatch will train new volunteers in stream monitoring.

Two members met at the small meeting room of the Parkwood Library.

Festival for Wildlife

Northeast Creek Streamwatch tabled all day and increased contact list. This also provided an opportunity to network with other individuals and groups interested in the environment: we spoke with a representative of a USDA program to put conservation easements on farms and timberlands and help fund stream restoration, and with members of the New Hope Creek Corridor Committee. During the event, members noticed blue-gray gnatcatchers taking food to a tiny lichen covered branch, second from the bottom on the west side of a pecan or walnut tree by Leigh Farm’s main house. There seem to be a lot of gnatcatchers around this spring.

Durham Public Schools Scott King Road Site Acquisition

The Durham County Commissioners decided to buy the old Scott Mill site for an elementary school a week or two ago. Melissa Rooney and Randal Haithcock, for Northeast Creek Streamwatch, were mentioned in the Herald-Sun article.

Jordan Lake Boundary Issue

There was an apparently poorly attended neighborhood meeting on May 1. Also, the appeal to the State Environmental Management Commission was withdrawn. The Division of Water Quality stands by its acceptance of the privately funded land survey. The next opportunity for citizen participation is on June 9.

Three members met at the Parkwood Volunteer Fire Department training room.

Northeast Creek Earth Week

On April 19, Michael Pollack led a hike upstream from Grandale Drive to the ridge to east. There were 7 people, including a Herald-Sun photographer. (The pictures were on the front page of the Durham section the Monday, April 20 edition.) May apples, jack in the pulpit, spring beauties, bluets were blooming. The group heard a lot of cricket frogs, saw a lot of dragonflies and some butterflies, and toward the end of the hike heard an owl.

On April 20, the Earth Week storytime that Northeast Creek Streamwatch held in the morning and the afternoon went well.

On April 21, Peter Schubert, a member who is also active in native plant preservation activities, talked to around eight people at the Parkwood Library about native flowers in the area and showed slides from the Jim Pullman collection and from his own slides.

On April 23, Art Hollander, a folk singer, performed a series of Earth Day songs (including Northeast Creek Streamwatch’s “Down by the Creek”) at the Parkwood library to a crowd of twenty.

The annual Earth Day cleanup was April 25. There were 8 kids and 4 adults. Junk, 2 big bags and about 8 small bags were picked up behind the Library, and another 2 big bags from the ponds on Euclid Avenue. Thee people picked up trash around the Grandale Bridge.

IBM Earth Day Tabling

On April 24, two representatives from Northeast Creek Streamwatch tabled and gave out about 50 cards with the website address, “Where is NE Creek?” flyers, “Sedimentation” flyers, and our business sponsor Kayak Adventures flyers.

Glaxo Earth Day Events

As part of Northeast Creek Earth Week, volunteers from Glaxo and City of Durham Stomwater environmental educator Laura Webb Smith conducted a cleanup in Parkwood and put “no dumping” decals on stormwater drains.

Festival for Wildlife, Leigh Farms

The second Festival for Wildlife, sponsored by the Piedmont Wildlife Center, was May 2. The group discussed what Northeast Creek Streamwatch’s participation would be and decided to table.

Jordan Lake Boundary Issue

There was a report about this continuing issue. The Durham County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) last November accepted the realignment of Jordan Lake normal pool boundaries as a result of a survey made by a private developer with an interest in a redefined boundary. There has been much controversy as a result of this action. From the perspective of protecting Northeast Creek, the issue is the arbitrary changing of long established definitions of the boundary of Jordan Lake in order to permit development that otherwise would not be permitted. The report was that the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission and the owner had been meeting and that private individuals in the environmental movement were raising money to underwrite the Durham BOCC in conducting an independent survey to be contracted by the County.

Durham Public Schools Scott King Road Site Acquisition

A site on Scott King Rd. near Herndon Rd., is being considered for one or two new schools. The land costs $2.9 million or $60,000 an acre, and the county commissioners are divided about authorizing the purchase. Durham Public Schools likes the site, but the cost is high compared to the assessed value. At a meeting with the real estate agent and DPS officials, representatives of Northeast Creek Streamwatch saw two possible site plans, with 1 school and with 2 schools. If an elementary school is built there, it will be for 600 students A middle school would require larger sports fields. DPS considers it impractical to get students to the fields at Herndon Park in a schools-parks arrangement. The Board of County Commissioners will discuss this at a work session Monday and then there will be a public hearing. DPS has invited Northeast Creek Streamwatch representatives to participate as part of the neighborhood design meeting when that occurs. The site is being “land banked” for now until DPS has funds for construction.

Development Updates

The meeting reviewed the status of the rezoning request currently before either the Durham City-County Planning Commission, the City Council, or the BOCC.

Note change of date and location:
The monthly meeting will be in the training room of the Parkwood Volunteer Fire Department, Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 7 pm.

There were seven people at the meeting.

Thanks to a donor for the $25 dollar donation to the group for water testing supplies.

Stormwater Citizens Participation Group

Michelle Woolfolk, a Stormwater Engineer from the Durham City Department of Public Works, invited people from the Northeast Creek watershed to come to upcoming meetings concerning the City of Durham’s Stormwater Management Plan and water quality recovery programs for Northeast Creek and Third Fork. A wide range of people attend, and the Northeast Creek watershed needs more representation.

Durham Earth Month - Northeast Creek Week - April 19-25

Tobin Fried, Durham County Sustainability Division Manager reported on the upcoming Durham Earth Month. There will be a number of environmental events during Earth Month in April. The Farmers Market will open its spring season; there will be an environmental Arts Crawl; the Museum of Life and Science is having a Butterfly Bash; Earth Day cleanups are on April 25 in the morning, and an Earth Day festival will take place at the CCB Plaza downtown in the afternoon. Ellerbe Creek stream organization have planned a week. Northeast Creek Streamwatch is planning Northeast Creek Week, April 19-25. The events have been announced in Durham magazine and elsewhere.

Northeast Creek Streamwatch has been invited to have a table at the IBM Earth Day event April 22-23. This will now be part of Northeast Creek Week.

The Northeast Creek annual Earth Day clean-up will be on Saturday, April 25, 9 AM - Noon. Northeast Creek Streamwatch is inviting homeowners associations and other organizations in the Northeast Creek watershed to coordinate with us in setting up clean-ups on April 25.

Signs

The NC Department of Transportation has agreed to put up signs marking the Northeast Creek, like those marking New Hope Creek and Ellerbe Creek.

The City of Durham Stormwater Department got the NC Division of Water Quality Stream Watch program to send us two more Stream Watch signs.

Jordan Lake Survey

Members of Northeast Creek Streamwatch have signed a petition requesting the Durham County Commission to reject the resurvey of Jordan Lake boundaries that was prepared by a developer.

Jordan Lake Rules

Officials from the City of Durham Stormwater Department and the NC Division of Water Quality held a public meeting at the Parkwood Library on February 24 to answer questions about the City of Durham’s position on the NC Division of Water Quality’s Jordan Lake Rules. The meeting was well attended. The Haw River Assembly riverkeeper attended. The City of Durham is concerned about the cost of retrofitting existing developments to reduce nitrogen pollution going into Jordan Lake. The new rules would require 35% reduction in nitrogen pollutants scheduled over 10 years. A lot of the nitrogen compounds are deposited from the air and come from vehicle exhaust. The City has some of the more stringent targets because of the concentration of pollution in lower New Hope Creek, which is obstructed from reaching Jordan Lake by the Fearrington causeway. The City argues that the retrofit actions should be funded regionally and not piecemeal by individual municipalities and counties.

Development Update

Rezoning for a Reconciliation United Methodist Church at the northeast corner of Fayetteville Road and Martin Luther King Parkway. The site is on a ridge, and most present considered it not to present a problem. We will try to get a look at the site plan to confirm that this is the case.

Board of Adjustment hearing for property on Ellis Road near Sohi Road. There will be an administrative hearing March 5th regarding the condos uphill from a branch of Northeast Creek. Colonial Grand has appealed an administrative decision requiring connection between the multifamily residential and office/institutional parts of its property and permitting use other than offices in the office/institutional zone of the property.

Other News about Northeast Creek

Members reported having seen otter droppings at the lower end of Northeast Creek. We are waiting for an otter sighting.

Announcements

Next monthly meeting is March 25 at 7 pm in the Small Conference Room at Parkwood Library.

Three people met at the Parkwood library

Northeast Creek Basin Archaeology Book

The group discussed producing a book to explain the artifacts found in the Northeast Creek basin.

Earth Day

The group discussed having the usual cleanup on Saturday, April 25th in the afternoon. The group is considering adding the O’Kelly Church Road bridge and also cleaning along Burdens Creek between Audubon Park and Alexander Drive. EPA, which is located in RTP and on Burdens Creek, is planning to do something for Earth Day in RTP; the group discussed the possibility of community cleanups along the North Branch, which runs through Meridian Park and Penrith to the west of NC 55.

IBM invited Northeast Creek Streamwatch to participate in their Earth Day events again. We are looking for volunteers who can help table on April 22 and 23.

The Durham Sustainability Office wants to have a Creek Week that week also, and we discussed possible hikes that we might do on the date of the Earth Day cleanup.

NC Department of Transportation Issues

The group discussed how to get the NC DOT to mark Northeast Creek with a few signs and whether it is possible to adopt roads.

We also discussed the toll road planned for RTP. It is virtually approved, but the economic crisis has delayed it. Stopping it requires lobbying the General Assembly.

Letters on Jordan Lake Survey

On behalf of Northeast Creek Streamwatch, Michael Pollock sent a letter to Julie Ventaloro at the Division of Water Quality and to the County Commissioners; and a version of this letter was printed in the Herald-Sun last week. The Herald-Sun published a letter from the Durham People’s Alliance on Wednesday. The group is continuing to monitor this action that would affect Northeast Creek as well as New Hope Creek.

Development Notices

Reconciliation United Methodist Church has applied for rezoning at the northeast corner of Martin Luther King Parkway and Fayetteville Road. The group discussed whether to comment on this action in the Northeast Creek basin. A decision will be made after the group sees the site plans.

Planning Commission Vacancy

Friday, January 30 is the deadline for people to volunteer for service on the Planning Commission, which has lost its South Durham representative.

Hikes

We are planning wildflower hikes in March, probably in conjunction with stream monitoring.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be at the Parkwood Library, February 25, at 7 pm.

There were five people at the meeting.

Parkwood Christmas Parade

Nine people were in the Northeast Creek Streamwatch unit. The Great Blue Heron walked this year, and we also had the classic car again.

Jordan Lake Normal Pool Boundary Survey

A member reported that Durham County has accepted a re-survey of the Lake Jordan normal pool. The survey was paid for by a developer who wants to build a residential and commercial development at the corner of Highway 751 and Stagecoach Road. If the survey is accepted it will mean the developer can build on more acres of the property, which includes a forested inventory site. The construction will send more sediment into Jordan Lake along New Hope Creek. Although this development is not in the Northeast Creek basin, the re-survey will affect development along Northeast Creek.

The NC Division of Water Quality must review the survey. The group decided to send a letter to the person reviewing the survey for the NC Division of Water Quality. We will also notify groups who were at the State of Our Waterways conference.

Draft Non-Profit Documents

The draft documents for incorporation as a non-profit are complete except for a decision about the initial board and a mailing address for the group.

Upcoming Events

The next business meeting will be Wednesday, January 28th at 7 pm at the Parkwood Library.

Stream monitoring volunteers will leave from the Parkwood Library at 3 pm on Saturday, January 31, and Saturday, February 7.

Five people met at the Parkwood Branch Library.

Durham Brownfields Cleanup Grant

A member forwarded information about this to the listserver. Although the grant area is not within the Northeast Creek basin, we decided to comment on this to increase the chance of Durham getting the funds. This grant will help clean up sites that are toxic, but not as toxic a Superfund sites.

Parkwood Elementary School Waterwise Garden

The garden is almost done and is dedicated as a gift from Northeast Creek Streamwatch and friends.

North Carolina Big Sweep

Somewhere around thirty people participated again this year, working in Audubon Park (sponsored by the Audubon Park homeowners association), the stream feeding Parkwood Lake, the Highway 54 bridge, and the Grandale bridge.

Parkwood Christmas Parade

Northeast Creek Streamwatch will again have a unit in the Parkwood Christmas Parade. We have found a volunteer to don the nine-foot tall Great Blue Heron costume.