As kayakers paddled their way down Buck Creek’s newly built rapids last summer, the sounds of heavy machinery could still be heard in the background. Construction crews were putting the finishing touches on the artificial whitewater course, part of a major overhaul taking place in and around the southern Ohio creek.
Buck Creek and its tributary, Beaver Creek, were once healthy and robust freshwaters. But industry and dams built along Buck Creek near Springfield, OH, took their toll on the streams. Buck Creek now runs through a series of four low-head dams. Historically, the dams diverted water for mills and local industry and protected utilities spanning the creeks along a continuous 4-mile reach, but they’ve interfered with the water’s natural flow and inhibited stream health. The Springfield Conservancy District and Friends of the Buck Creek Recreation Corridor started to explore how to restore a more natural flow to the creek while maintaining the benefits provided by the dams.
Restoration Planning
Over the last decade, communities across the nation have begun melding dam removal and stream restoration efforts with recreational opportunities in the form of whitewater parks. If executed properly, these transformed rivers not only provide outdoor activities but also help to enhance water quality. While tourism income rises, so can biodiversity and overall stream health.
Engineers from Recreation Engineering and Planning were hired to determine how Buck Creek could achieve such a feat. The group has previously created other successful whitewater parks across the country. The project they proposed has aimed to modify the dams by creating a series of graded drops and pools. The grade-control structures still ensure nearby facilities are protected, but they restore the creek to something closer to its original pattern of pools and riffles.
Though changes to the dams are primarily for recreational purposes, they also help restore the natural flow of sediments and fish along the entire river and provide a healthier ecosystem for Buck Creek.
The project’s vision is to bring the community back to a healthier, more appealing Buck Creek. It will provide a site for canoeing and kayaking, nicer gathering spots along the creek, and educational opportunities for nearby Wittenberg University students and other local schools.
The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) approved the plan, and removal of one of the low-head dams and modification of another began in fall 2009. Large pieces of Indiana buff limestone have been used at four sites along the creek to create the necessary gradations.
Before the project received this necessary USACE permit, though, a range of environmental impact studies were needed to ensure the dam modifications would not cause damage to the local ecosystem.
Assessing Impact
Many precautions were taken to observe and address concerns regarding flood hazards, wetland soils, endangered species, historic properties and sites, combined sewer overflows, and stream integrity. Dr. John Ritter, professor of geology at Wittenberg University, has been studying the project’s impacts on Buck Creek’s ecosystem.
Ritter selected NexSens Technology, a Dayton, OH-based company that specializes in real-time environmental monitoring, to set up a comprehensive monitoring network. NexSens installed research equipment that included a rooftop weather station, stream gauge station, and four water-quality monitoring stations to help automate sampling efforts. The monitoring tools implemented at Buck Creek allow researchers at Wittenberg to monitor weather, stream flow, and water-quality data as they occur, helping to facilitate safe dam removal and assess the impact of the stream restoration.
The data gathered from these real-time monitoring stations, which span a 5-mile section of the creek now termed the Buck Creek Educational Corridor, have provided new opportunities for research by Wittenberg students. The students have been able to monitor Buck Creek before, during, and after the stream restoration and study the relation between rainfall, stream flow, and water quality. Ritter says the information also provides valuable insight into how local land use affects the creek.
“The data clearly delineate the impact different land uses, urban and agricultural, have on stream flow and water quality,” he says. “The timing of the hydrograph peaks, for instance, is a function of the flashy stormwater from the impervious surfaces of Springfield; a slower response from Beaver Creek, an agriculture-dominated watershed; and controlled releases from the reservoir in the upper part of Buck Creek’s watershed.”
Ritter says the data gathered from Wittenberg’s project can also serve to benefit the numerous communities around the nation looking to pursue similar restoration projects.
Monitoring Technology
The four water-quality stations are positioned upstream and downstream of the reach where the low-head dams are located, and they have helped assess how changes to the dams affect water quality. Each station is outfitted with a YSI 6920 V2-2 multi-parameter sonde that measures temperature, conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity.
An upstream monitoring site by Beaver Creek, which is also equipped with a water-level sensor, uses cellular telemetry to send data back to the university. Another water-quality station is located near the Springfield Museum of Art. This station lies immediately downstream of several significant combined sewer overflows that impact water quality.
A stream gauge station is housed at a gage house formerly managed by the US Geological Survey. It employs a NexSens AccuStage vented water-level sensor, providing data that will eventually be converted to stream discharge. The sensor is fixed in a stilling well below the minimum expected water level, and a cable containing the sensor signals and vent tube runs from the sensor to a NexSens radio telemetry data logger.
Farther downstream, monitoring equipment is mounted under a bridge and uses spread-spectrum radio telemetry to transmit data to the project computer.
Located on the roof of the Wittenberg lab building is a multiparameter weather station. The weather station is multifunctional; it collects weather data locally from a multiparameter weather sensor, but it also serves as radio signal repeater from the remote sites into the Wittenberg lab. The station employs a Vaisala model WXT520, which is a unique multiparameter weather sensor that simultaneously measures wind speed and direction, liquid precipitation, barometric pressure, temperature, and relative humidity.
Managing Data
The remote monitoring sites integrate with one another to form a reliable network for streaming environmental data into Wittenberg’s Barbara Deer Kuss Science Center. In the geology lab, NexSens iChart Software serves as the centralized database and control center for the remote network. iChart Software is also set to automatically relay incoming data to a NexSens WQData website. WQData is a secure Web datacenter hosted by NexSens Technology that provides an online interface for viewing environmental data. It offers continuous instant access to project data.
Wittenberg is using this Web-based interface to allow not only researchers at Wittenberg but also the community at large to view current and historical conditions of Buck Creek from any Internet browser. Recreational users, for example, can check the data before heading out to the creek. The publically available data also open up opportunities for students in the area, not just Wittenberg students, to learn about the changes at Buck Creek. Local high school teachers and students, for example, are using this information to complement data they collect in their biology, chemistry, and environmental science classes.
To view the live data feed from the Buck Creek Educational Corridor, see http://www4.wittenberg.edu/academics/geol/index.html.
The Buck Creek Educational Corridor is part of Wittenberg’s Center for Civic and Urban Engagement and its “Renewing the Core and the Creek” initiative.