Organizers of the Mud Creek Watershed Project hope to someday remove Mud Creek from North Carolina's impaired water bodies list. In an effort to do just that, involved parties are addressing stream degradation with a three-prong approach to improved water quality: Protection, prevention and restoration.
Protection involves maintaining and re-establishing stream buffers and wetlands by educating property owners and managers about the importance of the following: training graders, maintenance staff and other workers on protective techniques such as no-mow zones near streams; securing grant funds; and hosting programs to help land owners stabilize streams and replant vegetation.
Prevention is addressed through several programs. Hydrology management and storm water runoff control are key. Training developers, designers and homeowners on the importance of rain gardens, road swales, water harvesting and other strategies. Finally, project leaders seek grant funds to implement these solutions.
A new sediment and erosion control approach, which goes into effect in Henderson County Oct. 1, and a 2005 flood plain ordinance help with prevention as well. Literature and programs aimed at pollution control best management practices will help residents make more environmentally friendly decisions when they do everyday tasks like gardening and washing cars.
Restoration is the third piece of the Mud Creek project puzzle. Project leaders host a Big Sweep stream clean-up and an adopt-a-stream program, and the Stream Doctor Program trains local landscape professionals in best practice techniques for stabilizing eroding streambanks and providing cost-share assistance to homeowners carrying out such projects.
The Henderson County Cooperative Extension Service houses the Mud Creek project, but various other partner entities, agencies and officials are involved: staff for the cities of Hendersonville, Flat Rock and Laurel Park; Henderson County; the North Carolina Division of Water Quality, Ecosystem Enhancement Program; Henderson County Soil and Water Conservation District; Natural Resources Conservation District; Tennessee Valley Authority; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Army Corps of Engineers; North Carolina State University; the University of North Carolina at Asheville; Blue Ridge Community College; other area colleges; the Environmental and Conservation Organization; Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy; Riverlink; the Apple County Greenway Commission; Henderson County Chamber of Commerce; and Partners for Economic Progress.
Source: blueridgenow.com
