The Mud Creek Watershed

Nine sites including four sites on Mud Creek, one site on Bat Fork Creek, one site on Devils Fork, one site on Brittain Creek, and two sites on Clear Creek

On the ranking scale, Brittain Creek and Clear Creek at Apple Valley Road rate good, Mud Creek at Berea Church Road, at Erkwood Road, and at 7th Avenue, Clear Creek at Nix Road, Bat Fork Creek, and Devil's Fork rate average, and Mud Creek at North Rugby Road rates poor. All of the sites monitored in this watershed have at least some water quality problems. The upstream section of Mud Creek exhibits elevated nutrient concentrations. Median levels of orthophospate and ammonia-nitrogen are higher than average for the region. At the next site downstream on Mud Creek at Erkwood Road the water quality actually improves slightly. This site has been analyzed much longer than the Berea Church Road site and trend analysis shows water quality improving over time here. Turbidity, conductivity, alkalinity, and zinc levels are declining. Another site in this watershed that has been showing great improvement over time is Bat Fork Creek. All parameters analyzed have shown significant improvement since the first few years that this stream was analyzed. Diverting the wastewater from the G.E. plant to the Hendersonville wastewater treatment plant has made a big difference. Bat Fork has improved its overall rating steadily in the last few years. However, not all problems are completely solved. Conductivity levels still occasionally rise well above normal and nitrate concentrations are consistently well above normal. Bat Fork Creek has exhibited elevated nitrate concentrations as long as this project has been monitoring this site. In the first few years of this project nitrate concentrations were extremely high, often exceeding water quality standards. Since 1995 they have declined, but were still quite high, especially between May 1998 and October, 1999. Since then they declined slightly, but are still well over average. The source or sources of nitrogen to this stream should be investigated.

Devil's Fork flows into Mud Creek in Hendersonville. The site in Hendersonville frequently exhibits poor water clarity, relatively high conductivity, and elevated nutrient concentrations. It has not shown great extremes, but it rarely shows good water quality either. That is why it ranks only average. The Mud Creek site in Hendersonville at 7th Avenue is more prone to extremes than Devil's Fork, particularly in regard to nutrient and heavy metal concentrations. Urban runoff is an issue at this site, although it is in better condition than many other urban sites being analyzed. Overall water quality is only slightly worse than at the site on Erkwood Road. Trend analysis shows sediment and heavy metals concentrations declining over time at this site. Dryer weather conditions resulting in less surface runoff, rather than actual water quality improvement measures, may be the major reason for the improvement. The Mud Creek sites at both Erkwood Road and 7th Avenue show increasing sedimentation and heavy metals concentrations as water levels rise during rain storms.

Although water quality for Clear Creek is generally good to fair, the downstream site on Nix Road generally shows poorer water clarity than normal for area streams. While water quality is usually good at the upstream site at Apple Valley Road, trend analysis shows it to be declining over time. Specifically, nutrient concentrations are increasing and water clarity is declining (turbidity increasing). While Clear Creek may show relatively good water quality in the parameters analyzed by this program, there is a great potential that other pollutants that are not analyzed plague this watershed. Biological testing by the state of North Carolina shows this stream as impaired. Toxic pollutants such as pesticides are suspected when benthic organisms cannot survive, but other chemical testing indicates no major pollutant problems.

Brittain Creek generally also shows relatively good water quality, but is somewhat prone to typical urban runoff problems such as elevated conductivity and heavy metals. This stream flows through many developments with extensive parking lots where heavy metals and chemicals associated with vehicles can build up on pavement and wash into the creek during storms. The most downstream site on Mud Creek at North Rugby Road exhibits poor water quality in most parameters. During rains the stream becomes heavily silted and during dry weather conductivity levels and nutrient concentrations increase greatly. Mud Creek clearly receives a great deal of surface runoff through the lower portion of the watershed and is also heavily influenced by point-source pollutants from the wastewater treatment plant and possibly other sources.