Part II: Why is Queen's Creek So Darn Dirty?

Why? All you have to do is ask. The right person. Seems there is a really simple and logical reason.

Basically, the short of it is that sediment is continually being stirred up as the tide moves in and out. I found this illustration of three different types of tidal mixing in an estuary. It shows that as the salt water moves in, it is heavier and moves in a wedge along the bottom. The top layer is less salty and moves along the surface. The directionality leads to turbidity.

At the New Quarter Park Walk and Talk today, Jill Bieri, director of Chesapeake Experience, talked about our 64,000 square mile, 6 state plus D.C., estuary. The Chesapeake Bay is stressed overall, due to over-harvesting and the activities of 17 million people, but it's also very large and very diverse. Different streams in the watershed mean many different relationships and different sets of problems and issues.

She said that Queen's Creek is quite clean, actually. We measured for pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorous that make algae growth, die, and decompose, thus creating dead zones. The pollutant levels were low, but the water itself is not clear (the Secchi depth was 18 inches).  Jill used to work with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science on bay grass restoration projects. She said that Queen's Creek can't support underwater grasses and probably hasn't been clear enough to support the growth of underwater grasses in an historical time frame.

I asked about the look of the creek and referenced the Lynnhaven River Now project that I mentioned in my earlier post about our dirty Queen's Creek. The unique characteristics of Queen's Creek means that it isn't flushed by tides as well as the Lynnhaven. The Lynnhaven's bottom is sandier than ours. The current in Queen's Creek is faster.

As for the stained clothes I mentioned, Jill said that it was possibly due to the tannins in the water from decomposing leaves. We are blessed with huge swaths of riparian border that absorb and infiltrate stormwater runoff. Lynnhaven has very little because it's in a city with lots of industrial and residential sites perched all along its edge.

Now on that fecal coliform, that's a problem we have in common. That's from people, pet, and wildlife do. Lynnhaven has more of the first two and we probably have more of the third. Nevertheless, the added load from us and our pets has an impact on Queen's Creek's water quality. 

Queen's Creek is dirty, but as Chesapeake Bay tributaries go, it's not really bad. Rather, the particular features of the stream such as underlying geology, depth, and tidal current, keep turbidity levels high throughout the water column. Like they say, looks can be deceiving. Up close, Queen's Creek just looks worse than it is. But if you step back and take it all in, it's beautiful.

Read Part I: Why is Queen's Creek So Darn Dirty?