Soque River Watershed Partnership: Assessment and Protection

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Soque River Watershed PartnershipAssessment and
Protection

• ANREP
• August 21, 2007

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Watershed Location

• Study area 160 square miles
• Tributary to Chattahoochee River
• Beneficial uses

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State Record Rainbow!

• 17 lbs. 8 oz.
• 28.25 long

Trout Chow!
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Project background

• States are required to monitor and report the
  condition of their waters
• Stream segments in our watershed are not meeting
  Georgias criteria for bacteria and sediment
• Grant money has been secured to assess potential
  water quality problems and identify and implement
  solutions

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Project Objectives

• Perform a comprehensive baseline assessment of
  stream health (physical, chemical, biological
  parameters)
• Characterize non-point source (NPS) pollution
  inputs in the watershed
• Build consensus about water protection practices
• Develop a community based watershed protection
  plan to preserve high quality areas and restore
  threatened areas

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Watershed assessment

• Hot spot bacterial sampling
• E. Coli as indicator organism
• Suspended sediment concentration
• ISCO automated samplers
• DH-81 hand-held samplers (EWI method)
• Biological assessment
• benthic macroinvertebrates (RBP)

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Headwaters

• Sample protocols focus on sub-watersheds of the
  Soque River
• characterizing biological health
• identifying NPS pollutant sources
• quantifying pollutant loads

Raper Creek
Shoal Creek
Beaverdam Creek
Deep Creek
Yellowbank Creek
Hazel Creek
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Physical and chemical measurements and
observations

• RBP habitat assessment
• RBP physical characterization
• Stream cross sectional profile
• Wolman pebble count
• In situ water quality parameters
• dissolved oxygen
• water temperature
• conductivity
• pH

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Macroinvertebrate biological assessment

• Sample effort to characterize sub-basins
• Sites scored using multi-metric biotic index
• Compared to ecoregional reference streams

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Field sampling methods

• RBP / GAEPD protocols
• QAPP sets SOPs for field and lab protocols
• Benthic macroinvertebrate field sampling
• 20 jabs, D-frame net
• multi-habitat composite samples
• allocation of sample units depends on stream
  gradient

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Benthic taxonomy

• Used appropriate taxonomic keys
• Identification to lowest practicable taxonomic
  level (usually genus) exception Chironomidae

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Metrics

• Attributes of the biotic community
• Indicate ambient water quality conditions
• Valid metrics
• ecologically relevant
• documented stress response
• Five metric categories
• richness
• composition
• tolerance / intolerance
• functional feeding group
• habit

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Multimetric index

• EPT Taxa
• Chironomidae
• North Carolina Biotic Index (NCBI)
• Scrapers
• Clingers

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• 19 benthic macro-invertebrate samples
• Index period Oct-Feb
• 2004-2006

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• Preliminary results indicate a relationship
  between land use / land cover and biological
  health

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Pearson Correlations (r)

• Reflect the degree to which variables are related
• Do not demonstrate cause and effect
• Range from 1 to -1

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Positive correlations (p lt .05)
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Negative correlations (p lt .05)
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Bacteriological Data

• E. coli indicator
• Used to prioritize locations for corrective
  action
• Requires landowner cooperation

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Next steps

• Continue bacterial and sediment sampling
• Develop Watershed Protection Plan
• Implement corrective actions and protective
  measures

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Project Benefits

• Grants may be targeted to property owners that
  need them and want help
• Data from the assessment may be used by
  stakeholders for water protection and land use
  considerations
• Water supply watersheds may remain protected
• Solutions to address NPS inputs that are
  equitable to all stakeholders may be developed

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Protect the Soque River Watershed! Do not let
my death be in vain!

• For more
• information
• please contact
• Duncan Hughes
• [phone]
• dhughes_at_northgatech.edu