The Mud Creek Watershed Project is an effort to improve the water quality and of the stream habitat of Mud Creek and and its tributaries in Henderson County, N.C. The goal is to remove Mud Creek from the state’s list of impaired water bodies.
The Mud Creek Project is housed by the Henderson County Cooperative Extension Service, but it includes many partner entities and agencies, including local government officials; staff from cities and towns within the watershed; federal and state agencies; North Carolina State University; and the University of North Carolina-Asheville. Other participants include local colleges, nonprofit organizations and business groups.
The key to the project’s success is having partners do what they do best so that problems causing stream degradation are addressed at all levels and from all angles.
P, P and R
Overall, the project takes a three-pronged approach to improving water quality—protection, prevention and restoration. Within each of these avenues, there are many programmatic elements and target audiences whose participation is needed to achieve success.
Protection. One avenue of action is protecting stream channels through maintenance and re-establishment of stream buffers and wetlands. The Mud Creek Project helps educate landowners and land managers about the importance of training workers in protective techniques (e.g., no-mow zones near streams), securing grant funds and administering programs to assist in streambank stabilization and replanting projects.
Prevention. The second focus is preventing stream degradation from worsening. This involves program efforts at many levels and in three major categories: hydrology management, pollution prevention and monitoring.
- Hydrology Management. Enforcing laws regarding general storm water management and sediment and erosion control at distrubed sites is critical. Henderson County has taken a key step with its new sediment and erosion control ordinance, which went into effect Oct. 1. The Mud Creek Project supports local government and partner agencies by educating the public about the impact of sedimentation and promoting training workshops for graders, construction managers and homeowners. It is important to act thoughtfully and intentionally when developing land. Flood management is a highly charged issue, often pitting developers against environmentalists. Well-planned solutions in the political middle are usually the best approach. It is important to remember that ecologically, streams are supposed to flood, and floodwater needs somewhere to go. In reality, floodplain ordinances are the best tool for managing related activities. Henderson County’s ordinance, passed in 2005, has been a key achievement for the county. By carefully managing the human activity and structures affecting the floodplains, project leaders can prevent the devastating damage that results from inevitable flooding. Upland development is a part of cautious development as well. The fast-paced conversion of farmland and other green space to neighborhoods, roads and shopping centers is the most serious contributor to hydrological change that impacts our local streams. With new impervious surfaces, storm water that historically soaked into the ground now runs off into streams, carrying pollutants from the landscape and increasing erosion of streambanks as a result of greater stream volumes. The Mud Creek Project provides objective, research-based information to local planners and officials, residents, developers and others to facilitate discussion and help the various players make the best management decisions.
- Pollution Prevention. In everything we do, from growing tomatoes to washing our cars, best management practices (BMPs) are critical for reducing the volume of contaminants that end up on the landscape and get carried by runoff to local water bodies. The Mud Creek Project develops literature and provides programming to educate land users about practices for their industries and activities. Because storm water runoff carries pollutants from the land to waterways, dumping contaminants on the ground and into ditches and storm drains, it is essentially equivalent to direct stream dumping. Education about proper waste disposal and how to identify illegal dumping is a program area slated for attention in the near future.
- Monitoring. Finally, prevention efforts require continued monitoring of water quality and stream habitat. Currently, government monitoring is carried out occassionally by the North Carolina Division of Water Quality and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Volunteers from the Environmental and Conservation Organization (ECO) conduct regular citizen monitoring. The Mud Creek Project works to assist these entities with their efforts and create a comprehenshive monitoring plan to identify and fill in gaps where needed.
Restoration. The third prong of the Mud Creek effort is to repair and restore degraded streams. At the most basic level, stream cleanups are critical to improving the aesthetics and health of waterways. ECO leads Big Sweep, an annual fall stream cleanup, and manages the Adopt-a-Stream program for year-round citizen stream responsibility.
On a large scale, stream restoration is carried out by the Ecosystem Enhancement Program, a branch of the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The Mud Creek Project also seeks grant funds to carry out stream restoration work in targeted areas. Additionally, in an effort to address smaller-scale needs, project leaders established the Stream Doctor program. This group trains local landscape professionals in BMPs for stabilizing eroding streambanks and establishing cost-share assistance to homeowners carrying out similar projects.
This three-pronged approach is an overarching plan of action for the Mud Creek Project, but it will take many years to achieve progress on all these fronts. The continued participation of multiple partners and the active involvement of individuals and local businesses are critical to progress.
