There are three monitoring sites in the upper part of the Pigeon River watershed and two sites on the Pigeon River ittself. The three sites in the upper part of the watershed are upstream on the East Fork of the Pigeon River at Cruso, downstream on the East Fork of the Pigeon River at Bethel, and on the West Fork of the Pigeon River at Bethel. The two sites on the Pigeon River are located at Canton and at Hepco Bridge.

Water quality in this system is noted by extremes. All three sites in the upper part of the watershed are rated excellent with the site on the East Fork of the Pigeon River at Cruso being rated a perfect 100 on the overall index rating scale. The site on the Pigeon River at Canton is rated below average and the site on the Pigeon River at Hepco Bridge is rated poor. In fact, the latter site has the lowest score (46) on the overall index of any of the 167 sites rated in the VWIN monitoring program. Clearly, the Pigeon River is being severely impacted by pollutants between the most upstream and most downstream sites. As this watershed collects almost all of the waters of Haywood County, the pollutants in the Pigeon River at the Hepco Bridge site are a composite of all of those entering the river from streams throughout the county. This may be the most chronically polluted section of the river as farther down river there are several streams entering from heavily forested areas that very likely carry few pollutants and help dilute pollutant levels in the river.

As mentioned, the three upstream sites on the Forks of the Pigeon River rate excellent. However, low levels of stream sedimentation can be found on the East Fork site at Bethel. All other parameters remain excellent. No location on the Pigeon River between Bethel and Canton is monitored, but just downstream from Canton the water quality declines dramatically from that of the upper Forks. The most notable change is in the conductivity measurement shows median levels thirty-seven times greater at this site than at the sites in Bethel and twelve times greater than the average median level for the 167 sites monitored in the region. Although conductivity levels may have declined from historical measurements, they are clearly still an issue. Conductivity levels are highest when water levels are low indicating point-source pollution. As there have been extended periods of dry weather in the last three years, median levels are significantly higher during the three year stream rating period when compared with the full four years of monitoring.

Nutrient concentrations, particularly phosphorus and ammonia, also increase greatly at the Canton site. Wastewater treatment facilities often are a key factor when phosphorus concentrations are high and the Canton wastewater treatment system (which is combined with the treatment system for the Blue Ridge Paper Company) is very likely a key factor. As with conductivity, nutrient concentrations peak at this site during loow flow conditions indicating point-source pollution. While most sites in Haywood County exhibited highest nutrient concentrations in February, 2000 during a major storm, the Canton site exhibited highest concentrations in September, 1999 when water levels were at their lowest. Ammonia concentrations exceeded the 1.00 mg/L state water quality standard during that monitoring event. Although there is certainly a greater amount of sedimentation at this site than at the sites in Bethel, it is not as great as at the Hepco Bridge site.

As stated, the waters of the Pigeon River at Hepco Bridge contain waters, along with their pollutants, from all of the major streams in Haywood County that flow through the more populated areas. Conductivity levels and nutrient concentrations reflect the highs exhibited during low flow from Canton and sediment, metals, and nutrient concentrations reflect the highs exhibited during storm flow from streams like Richland Creek, Jonathan Creek, Rush Fork (a tributary of Crabtree Creek), and Fines Creek. At this point there are not enough clean streams entering the river to dilute the pollutant concentrations from these more heavily polluted waters. Reducing pollutant levels in this section of the Pigeon River will require attacking the problem from these sources.