Last night I attended a Mill Creek stakeholders meeting. That's what they call folks who live, work, and recreate in James City County's Mill Creek Watershed. At the meeting I learned that there is too much fecal coliform and enterococci bacteria in the waterway and the county is therefore required by law (1972 Clean Water Act and 1997 Virginia Water Quality Monitoring, Information and Restoration Act) to write and implement a plan to reduce bacteria levels.
At the meeting, presenters from the county and state reviewed the implementation plan that's been written for Mill Creek and our neighboring Powhatan Creek watersheds, both on the State's impaired waterways list. Mill Creek and Powhatan Creek are mainly within James City County with a small portion in the city of Williamsburg. Both Mill Creek and Powhatan Creek flow into the James River, which discharges into the Chesapeake Bay at Hampton Roads in southeast Virginia.
Here's the description of the impairment situation:
Pollution from both point and nonpoint sources can lead to fecal coliform bacteria contamination of water bodies. Fecal coliform bacteria are found in the intestinal tract of warm-blooded animals. Although most fecal coliform are not pathogenic, their presence in water indicates contamination by fecal material. For contact recreational activities such as swimming, health risks increase with increasing fecal coliform counts. If the fecal coliform concentration in a water body exceeds state water quality standards, the water body is listed for violation of the contact recreational use. Virginia has recently adopted an Escherichia coli (E. coli) water quality standard for freshwater and an enterococci standard for saltwater and transition zones for surface waters. The concentrations of these organisms are considered to be better indicators of health risk than the concentration of the broader fecal coliform group.
Mill Creek (VAT‐G10E‐03) was initially listed as impaired on Virginia’s 2002 303(d) Report on Impaired Waters due to exceedances of Virginia’s water quality standard for fecal coliform. Mill Creek is currently listed as not supporting the Recreation Use on Virginia’s 2006 305(b)/303(d) Water Quality Assessment Integrated Report (VADEQ, 2006) due to water quality violations of the enterococci standard.
The sources of bacteria are known, yet the resources and technology needed to break out how much comes from which source are not available and ever changing. Therefore, the plan takes a shotgun approach and includes a lot of programs for reducing bacteria. Things that can be done quickly and easily are being implemented first. Programs include Sanitary Sewer System Improvements, Septic System Programs, Stormwater Quality Programs, Boating Programs, Pet Waste Programs, Aquatic Resources Restoration, Land Use Management Programs, and Wildlife Contribution Controls.
It is hoped that these programs will reduce the levels of bacteria that get into the streams from us and our warm-blooded companions. Sewage is being watched closely and there is not a lot that can be done about wildlife, so pets are a key target. Bacteria in pet poop lives for years after it's left the animal. Yuck. If "Scoop the Poop" campaigns don't work, the plan calls for implementation of a pet waste ordinance. I wonder if my dog-walking neighbors know this? I think not. Well, they've surely seen the Poop Fairy advertisements by now, but my observations lead me to believe that they don't always scoop the poop. They just don't take it seriously enough to act. Would an ordinance get their attention?
My cats passed away in 2005 and 2009, so the little bit I can contribute to reducing bacteria falls under the stormwater and land use management/wildlife categories. I have a rain barrel. Check. My work on the easement, as discussed in previous blog posts, is justified. Bacteria clings to sediment in runoff and eroded soils that travel down our stormwater easement to Mill Creek. By putting a kink in the ditch and digging a pond, I'm encouraging the sediment to drop out here and the water to be filtered by the earth and seep into the ground.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is currently waging a campaign to reauthorize and strengthen the section of the Clean Water Act that specifically deals with the Chesapeake Bay. While their main concern is the nitrogen and phosphorus that feeds the Bay, by implementing our watershed bacteria reduction plan we will be aiding the cause. Once Section 117 of the Clean Water Act is reauthorized, officials will note that Mill Creek, by implementing tactics to reduce bacteria, will also be reducing nitrogen. The sources, such as human, pet, and wildlife poop, are frequently the same and systems that remove them and prevent washing into Mill Creek are also the same.
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