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Shanna K. Murphy
Blacks Run
Background Information
Located in the South Fork Shenandoah River Basin Comprised of 12,255 acres Over 8 miles of the 10.74-mile stream flows through urban development before entering a primarily rural area in the lower portion GIS Land Use Assessment: -Urban/Suburban: 66% -Pasture/Hayland: 16% -Cropland: 9% -Forest: 8%
We live in the Blacks Run watershed before we get out to the river or the bay. This is our home, and our stream. The bigger picture is important, but so is taking care of our back yard. -Thanh Dang Public Works Planner (2009) Blacks Run was placed on VAs list of impaired waters in 1996 In 2006, VDEQ completed TMDLs for the impairments: Fecal Coliform TMDL
Erosion & runoff from agricultural livestock Untreated human waste disposal Wildlife Residential & urban land runoff
Flashy hydrographs Alterations in channel structure Excessive nutrient and sediment contamination Decline in biological diversity
In March of 2009, a massive restoration project took place on approximately 4,750 ft. of Blacks Run and two neighboring tributaries.
Reestablished the natural morphology of the stream Steep and eroding banks were scaled back
Continue efforts at measuring and quantifying the direct impacts of the restoration on Blacks Run by implementing a number of stream quality assessment techniques.
Characterize the post-restoration condition Compare the data to previous studies to determine whether or not Blacks Run can meet its designated usages
The Sites
1 Urban Site 2 Restoration Sites 1 Rural Site
Crop Field
Livestock Pasture
Collected Data
Measurement Category Collected Data Temperature, pH, Dissolved Oxygen, Specific Conductivity, Water Levels Total Chloride, NitrateNitrogen, Total Sulfate, Total Phosphorus Benthic Macro Counts Species, Height, Condition, GPS Coordinates Species and Numbers Frequency
Bimonthly
Nutrients
Bimonthly
Macroinvertebrate
Annual
Riparian Buffer
Annual
Fish Species
Biannual
Water quality parameters were measured and recorded twice a month at each site: Dissolved Oxygen (DO) Temperature pH Specific Conductivity (SC) Water Levels
Water Levels
Water levels taken as reference to storm events
31 C
Winter vs. Summer Average Temperature
25.00 Temperature (Celsius) 23.34 21.47 Winter Summer
maximum
21.43
18.21
Temperatures ranged between around 1C- 25C Urban sitehigher in summer, lower in winter
20.00
15.00 10.63 10.00 5.00 0.00 BR-PARK SC-PARK Site 7.61 7.10
6.48
5.0 mg/L
DO decreases in summer due to warmer temperatures and visa versa Levels consistently increase moving downstream
mg/L
Average DO
14.00 12.00 10.00 8.00 6.00 4.00 2.00 0.00 BR-PARK SC-PARK BR-BIKE BR-CWB 11.76 10.19 10.67 8.21
Site
minimum
6.5-9.5
Urban site continuously had the lowest pH levels, both in the bi-monthly measurements and the average of the 19month sampling period. Increased carbon dioxide levels lower the pH of water
Total Average pH
8.32
8.22
8.41
8.00
7.80 7.60 7.40 BR-PARK SC-PARK Site BR-BIKE BR-CWB
7.75
.150-.500 ms/cm
Average SC Almost all measurements fell outside the healthy range Rural site consistently held the lowest average
0.700 0.680 0.660 0.640 0.620 0.600 0.580 0.560 0.540 0.520 0.679
0.664
0.638
ms/cm
0.582
BR-PARK
SC-PARK Site
BR-BIKE
BR-CWB
Essential nutrient for algae and aquatic plants Considered a limiting factor for plant and aquatic life EPA WQC recommends 0.1 mg/L for aquatic life and 0.01 mg/L for max diversity
0.1 mg/L
0.01 mg/L
Average Phosphorus
0.060
0.049
0.029 0.023
BR-BIKE
BR-CWB
Site
Ion Chromatography
Each water sample was analyzed for major anions using a Dionex Ion Chromatograph
WQS
10 mg/L
Samples frequently exceeded the Federal standard BR-Bike held the highest average nitrate at 13.93, and SC-Park was the lowest at 6.29
mg/L
16.00
Average Nitrate
11.16
14.00
12.00 10.00
13.93
8.00
6.00 4.00
6.29
7.22
2.00
0.00 BR-PARK SC-PARK Site BR-BIKE BR-CWB
Sensitive to changes in the ecosystem Most live in an aquatic environment for over a year
Population Density Population Density (2011) (2012) 5.25 7.25 11.75 16.5 Date of Survey 11/2/11 10/5/12 11/2/11 10/5/12 11/2/11 10/5/12 11/2/11 10/5/12 11.75 14 4.25 19 VA SOS Multimetric Index 4 6 9 8 4 4 2 4
Ecological Condition Unacceptable Unacceptable Acceptable Gray Zone Unable to Determine Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable Unacceptable
Poor 18 4%
Aquatic life is still fairly poor due to excessive nutrient and pollutant loads. 19 months of monitoring has shown that BRBike consistently has the lowest macroinvertebrate and fish diversity, pH, and DO and the highest nitrate and phosphorus levels.
BMPs, better land use practices, volunteer clean-up days, and future monitoring are essential
Acknowledgments
Dr. Robert Brent Dr. Benzing
Erica Harriman