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 near Murphy, N.C., was a retired newsman, Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition member/volunteer/donor and recipient of the 2015 Holman Water Quality Stewardship Award. Tom died on December 28, 2020.