Town of Kemptville Catchment
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Kemptville Creek Subwatershed Report 2013 Town of Kemptville Catchment The RVCA produces individual reports for six catchments in the Kemptville Creek Subwatershed. What’s Inside Using data collected and analysed by the RVCA through its watershed monitoring and land cover 1. Surface Water Quality Conditions ...................2 classification programs, surface water quality conditions are reported for Kemptville Creek along with 2. Riparian Conditions .........................................8 a summary of environmental conditions for the surrounding countryside every six years. Overbank Zone ................................................8 Shoreline Zone ................................................9 This information is used to help better understand the effects of human activity on our water Instream Aquatic Habitat ...............................12 resources, allows us to better track environmental change over time and helps focus watershed 3. Land Cover ....................................................18 4. Stewardship & Protection .............................19 management actions where they are needed the most. 5. Issues ...........................................................20 6. Opportunties for Action .................................20 The following pages of this report are a compilation of that work. For other Kemptville Creek catchments and the Kemptville Creek Subwatershed Report, please visit the RVCA website at www.rvca.ca Catchment Facts General Geography The remainder of the urban area is in one of the adjacent Barnes • Town of Kemptville in the Municipality of North Grenville is the only urban Creek, Arcand Drain and Rideau River-Kars drainage areas area in the Kemptville Creek Subwatershed. The Town is the service centre for the large, rural, agricultural area that surrounds it. The urban area falls into Physical Geography several catchments: most of the Town core and the areas west of the Highway • Central to the Town of Kemptville catchment is a glacial till plain, 16/County Road 43 interchange are within the Town of Kemptville catchment while sand plains, beaches and some areas of clay underlie the upper and lower catchment. Sandy deposits in the upper catchment are associated with a regionally important esker, in H which an aggregate extraction operation is located. Dolostone with O N O thin layers of shale and sandstone underlies the sand and till U R W plains. Geological faults cut across the middle of the catchment A Y • The drainage area of 24 square kilometres is about five percent of C O the Kemptville Creek Subwatershed and less than one percent of U N T the Rideau Valley Watershed Y R D • Dominant land cover is crop and pastureland (30 percent), followed 4 4 3 4 D by woodland (25 percent), settlement areas (18 percent) and R!. TY N D U R wetland (18 percent). Transportation (eight percent) and water (one O T DY C S NE Y EN R!. K percent) occupy the rest of the landscape R 6 U 1 4 C Y T !. O W W H Vulnerable Areas N L IN E • Flood plain mapping has been available along Kemptville Creek R !. D !. E H through the Town of Kemptville since 1972, updated in 1983 and ! V W A !. S Y RVCA Benthic Site TI R C 4 2011 and regulated since 1976 U O !. RVCA1 Water Quality Site C U 6 N T Urban Service Area • Lower catchment sand plains and the upper catchment esker are E Y D M R P R Surveyed Stream North Grenville D E TT R D mapped in a Mississippi-Rideau Source Water Protection Region O E 4 R B S 4 ANSI H B C A S A technical report as significant groundwater recharge areas D Land Cover E R B Transportation 8 1 Sand and Gravel D C I Development Trends R A R Crop and Pasture D R I Y R S T S H L O Evaluated Wetland • New commercial development within this catchment is N L T E N O U D E D W Grassland O B R C E D N concentrated within the Town of Kemptville along the County Road N Settlement N R D IS 43/44 corridors, west of the Highway 416 interchange. This area O Unevaluated Wetland N D R R Water H has also recently seen business park development, site plan D C A Wooded Area BE approvals for medical, dental and veterinary services along with a R M O 010.5 A C IN K new high school and municipal complex. Much of this commercial S R T D Kilometres ² 1 Kemptville Creek Subwatershed Report 2013 Town of Kemptville Catchment development has been facilitated by the North Grenville Official Plan Water) have been completed from 1995 to 2012 (2009) and Comprehensive Zoning By-law (2013) • Fish sampling conducted on Kemptville Creek and its tributaries • Most new residential development in this catchment is occurring in the (RVCA, 2011) Clothier, Pinehill and George Street area. The rural area southwest of • Annual benthic macroinvertebrate sampling downstream of Hurd Street the Town has several pockets of rural subdivision development along since 2003 (RVCA) with limited severance activity and some development on existing lots • RVCA macro stream surveys in 2011, working upstream from the mouth of record of the creek taking measurements and recording observations on instream habitat, bank stability, other attributes and preparing a Conditions at a Glance temperature profile • Water quality rating along Kemptville Creek through the Town of • MOE well records indicate there are about 670 water wells in the Kemptville is “Fair”; sites on Hurd Street, Bridge Street and Highway 43 catchment (25 percent of all wells in the Kemptville Creek Subwatershed) show a decline in water quality over a 12 year reporting period • Municipality of North Grenville holds Permits to Take Water for three (2001 –2006 versus 2007 –2012), with no change observed at Prescott municipal water supply wells and a short-term construction dewatering Street over the same period operation; a commercial operation holds a Permit to Take Water for • Woodland cover proportion has changed/decreased by four percent construction dewatering (106 ha) from 2002 to 2008, due to a combination of changes in land • Watershed model developed by the RVCA in 2009 was used to study cover and land use the hydrological function of wetlands in the Rideau Valley Watershed, • The riparian buffer (30 metre wide along both sides of Kemptville Creek including those found in the Town of Kemptville catchment and its tributaries) is made up of woodland (29 percent), wetland • Well casings of the three drinking water production wells in Kemptville (26 percent), crop and pastureland (23 percent), settlement areas (two of which are located in the Kemptville Creek catchment) have been 13 percent) and transportation (9 percent) extended into the deep aquifer, resulting in a safer municipal drinking • A warm/cool water baitfish and recreational fishery of 28 fish species water supply is present • 2005 North Grenville Water and Wastewater Servicing Master Plan prepared by Stantec Consulting and Golder Associates for the Catchment Care Municipality of North Grenville • Fifty-one stewardship projects (Rural Clean Water/Ontario Drinking 1. Kemptville Creek Surface Water Quality Conditions Assessment of streams in the Kemptville Creek Subwatershed is based on R I V E C 22 parameters including nutrients (total phosphorus, total Kjeldahl C R O O V U I U E N N T 6 nitrogen, and ammonia), E. coli , metals (like aluminum and copper) and T W T S Y 1 4 Y L R E R L A D IL Y additional chemical/physical parameters (such as alkalinity, chlorides, pH D N 1 6 V 9 W 4 N E 1 4 H 4 E and total suspended solids). Each parameter is evaluated against R Y G W established guidelines to determine water quality conditions. Those H AY W S parameters that frequently exceed guidelines are presented below. N A R TE KEM-01(! VE D R C O The assessment of water quality throughout the Kemptville Creek 3 N M 4 M D T O E R T T Y S S R G Subwatershed also looks at water quality targets that are presented in the C T S Y N E E N IA U N L I O L L C JO A 2007 Kemptville Creek Subwatershed Plan Update (KCWP). The KCWP W M L A E Y W BA !( identifies nutrient and bacteria loading to be of concern and addresses the R KEM-02(! N ES S need to maintain and/or improve water quality aesthetics throughout the T T 6 J 1 A S 4 C N R Kemptville Creek Subwatershed. K E A Y S R I JO T U N W P A KEM-03 B H S IN E W P N E H A A H W (! V Y I S L T R T L S Change in Rating Surface water quality conditions in Kemptville Creek are monitored through S E O R R U D E M I B H E No Change E T N the RVCA’s Baseline Water Quality Monitoring Program. See Figure 1 and R O P V L C R IL C R E Improvement L E S Table 2 for monitoring site locations. E S C R O Decline D T T S Water Quality Rating The water quality rating for Kemptville Creek within the Town of Kemptville KEM-04 T !( D H Very Poor R C H N A E W (! O M R I !( Y ranges from “Good” to “Fair” (Table 2) as determined by the CCME Water S P IT Poor S 4 H E U A 1 C G U N S !(C Fair 6 E O 8 R O D D Quality Index (CCME WQI), with the scoring of water quality being largely D R 1 C R D U GE LE S R !( NGood L D CO T VE T R A Y influenced by nutrient concentrations.