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State
clean-up to begin along Martins and Peachtree creeks
Almost 45
percent of the area around these waterways in Cherokee
County, N.C., has “seen significant deterioration in
ecological condition and is functioning at a low level or
worse”
State
scientists make about 100 trips to the watershed before
issuing their report
Ecosystem
Enhancement agency calls on state’s westernmost county to
adopt mountain protection standards and a land-use plan
By Tom Bennett
Special to Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition
Murphy, N.C., Oct. 18, 2007 – Green and white watershed
restoration and protection signs will be coming to Peachtree
and Martins creeks, along with the stream repair efforts
that these roadside signs connote. It’s a new effort of the
State of North Carolina, coordinated by the Ecosystem
Enhancement Program, coming not a minute too soon judging
from recent tests showing high levels of pollution in these
key tributaries of the Hiwassee River.
Andrea Leslie is Western Watershed Planner for the
Ecosytem Enhancement Program of the N.C. Department of
Environment and Natural Resources, based in Swannanoa, N.C.
Jim Blose is an Environmental Scientist for Equinox
Environmental Consultation and Design, Inc., which is
located in Asheville. No one ever said watershed science
would come with short job titles. At a meeting tonight at
Tri-County Community College, these experts in the field
unveiled the Peachtree-Martins Creek Local Watershed Plan,
Phase III. Earlier phases were to figure out what’s wrong,
and this third one will be to do something about it.
There’s already been a lot of rubber-boot science taking
place in the two creeks. “We’ve been working on this plan
for two-and-a-half years,” Andrea Leslie said.
Later, I asked her to estimate the number of hours spent
so far on this project to measure pollution in Martins and
Peachtree creeks, and the Hiwassee River watershed between
Mission Dam and Murphy.
“There’s been work done by me and by Paul Weisner (EEP
Western Implementation Project Manager) and by the team of
scientists who work with Jim Blose, as well as scientists
with Division of Water Quality,” Leslie replied. The
Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition staff also worked many
hours coordinating local involvement in the project.
“I couldn’t name the number of trips, but there’s been a
heck of a lot. If you added up all the people and the
number of trips, I would say there probably have been more
than 100.”
‘STRESSORS’ IN A WATERSHED
When I hear the word “stressors,” I think of lunches at
local barbeque restaurants and how they work upon diners’
belts, often leading to the latter being discreetly loosened
a notch or two, along about mid-meal. In watershed science,
however, the word “stressors” refers to things that hurt the
streams.
“Important stressors that are widespread in the planning
area include lack of riparian vegetation; channel
modification; sediment impacts; and nutrient and fecal
coliform bacteria contamination,” according to the
“executive summary” handed out by the scientists at
tonight’s meeting.
“Severe degradation of the sub-watershed scale is
currently limited, occurring only in the Mission Quarry
area…
“Almost 18 square miles or 45% of the area has seen
significant deterioration in ecological condition and is
functioning at a low level or worse. Another 15 square
miles or 38% of the area is functioning at a moderate level
but is at risk of further degradation. Impacts of riparian
vegetation removal, channel modification and sedimentation
are widespread.”
I asked Andrea Leslie, how does this compare with other
North Carolina areas?
“There’s really a range out there,” she replied. “In some
watersheds we’ve studied, there are higher percentages of
streams that are degraded; those often are in the more
urbanized areas. The Peachtree-Martins Creek area is
somewhere in the middle.”
The EEP owes its existence to the DOT. That is, a
statute requires N.C. Department of Transportation to pay
its fellow agency, Ecosystem Enhancement Program, to make up
for the damage to streams and wetlands that occurs during
road work. To accomplish this “mitigation”, EEP repairs
other streams and wetlands, usually on private lands, in the
river basin where the road work is happening. One job that
is generating funds for the creek work in this case is the
4.9-mile relocation of U.S. 64 here in Murphy.
“We’ve been asked by them (NCDOT) to do about 10,000
feet of stream mitigation and about four acres of wetlands
mitigation,” Andrea Leslie said. Some of this need is
likely associated with future transportation projects in the
Hiwassee River watershed.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE MOUNTAIN COUNTY
In the plan’s “Strategies to mitigate future
development impacts,” the scientists call for Cherokee
County to:
-
Adopt a
subdivision ordinance “that ensures adequate planning
occurs”;
-
Develop a
comprehensive stormwater management program;
-
Develop a
local erosion and sediment control program;
-
Begin a
“robust” public education program “to increase public
knowledge of watershed issues”;
-
Develop
mountain protection standards;
-
Expand its
floodplain ordinance;
-
Write a
long-term plan “for meeting future wastewater treatment
plans; and
-
Develop a
county-wide land use plan.
I asked Andrea Leslie when those recommendations are
likely to be presented to the three commissioners. “We have
not yet done that, but are intending to do so later in the
year but perhaps early next year,” she said. County
Manager, David Badger participated on the Local Advisory
Committee that guided EEP’s efforts in this area and helped
develop the recommendations.
HERE IN OUR Martins Creek community, you can see plenty
of examples of how stressors have been, well, stressing.
Driving west from U.S. 19/129 along Martins Creek Road, in
just the first three miles you will see a trailer park with
many occupied house trailers down on the floodplain of
Martins Creek. Farther along, you see a trailer whose
sanitary facilities must have conked out, as it has had (for
weeks now) abutting it – to coin a phrase – a
construction-site temporary toilet, just a few yards off
Martins Creek. At a creek-side site still farther along
that has been lying un-worked for months, you can see the
electric meters that went in after the riparian buffer
vegetation was removed, apparently for an RV park, in a
space a county official deemed too narrow for a septic-tank
drain field. Nearby is a house trailer whose aft end is
parked directly over Martins Creek.
A drive of similar length along Highway 141 in the Slow
Creek watershed reveals miles of straightened stream
channels, many heavily eroding with livestock allowed
unlimited access, heavily grazed pastures with patches of
eroding land, and very few trees and shrubs on stream
banks. At the intersection of Highway 141 and U.S. 64 in
Peachtree, there are vast parking lots and commercial and
institutional buildings with few provisions for retention
and treatment of stormwater. And recently, front pages of
local newspapers are crowded with stories of groundwater
contamination and toxic drinking water in private wells.
“Private property owners have much to gain from the
programs EEP is to offer our communities as a result of this
study,” Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition restoration
coordinator, Stephen Berry said. “Because this funding is
included as part of the cost of conducting highway projects,
the state is able to provide some compensation to landowners
who are willing to protect and restore land and streams in
the watershed.” HRWC is currently coordinating initial
outreach efforts locally associated with implementation of
plan recommendations.
The Peachtree-Martins Creek Local Watershed Plan was
developed by the N.C. Ecosystem Enhancement Program.
Agencies that participated in the initiative were: Cherokee
County Cooperative Extension, Cherokee County Soil & Water
Conservation District, Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition,
Natural Resources Conservation Service, N.C. Division of
Water Quality, N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, and
Tennessee Valley Authority. Equinox Environmental
Consultation and Design was the technical consultant.
There, I’ve made sure to mention them all.
* * *
Tom Bennett of the Martins Creek Community west
of Murphy is a Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition member and volunteer.
E-mail him at
farblumtn@gmail.com
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