Integrated Analysis Report of Water Quality for the Ararat River Watershed Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin Catalog Unit # 03040101 Prepared By North Carolina Division of Water Quality Watershed Assessment Team Version 3.0 July 2009 Suggested Citation NCDWQ Watershed Assessment Team. 2009. Integrated Analysis Report of Water Quality for the Ararat River Watershed. North Carolina Division of Water Quality (NCDWQ); Version 3, July 2009. Version History Version 1.0 – Internal draft; No date Version 2.0 – Draft submitted to DWQ and EEP staff for review; March 2009 Version 3.0 – Incorporates comments obtained from the review of Version 2.0; July 2009 2 Table of Contents Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 3 Overview of LWP Area ............................................................................................................................................. 7 Summary of Existing Water Quality Data ................................................................................................................. 7 Summary of Reconnaissance Sampling ..................................................................................................................... 9 Summary of GIS-Based Subwatershed Prioritization. ............................................................................................. 11 Overview of Water Quality Monitoring .................................................................................................................. 13 Approach to Monitoring Site Selection ............................................................................................................... 13 Monitoring Goals ................................................................................................................................................. 13 Description of Monitoring Sites .......................................................................................................................... 16 Methods ........................................................................................................................................ 20 Chemical and Physical Monitoring and Analysis .................................................................................................... 20 Biological Monitoring ............................................................................................................................................. 21 Habitat Assessments ................................................................................................................................................ 22 Stream Corridor Reconnaissance ............................................................................................................................. 22 Quality Assurance/Quality Control ......................................................................................................................... 22 North Carolina Water Quality Standards, Classifications, Project Benchmarks ................................................. 23 Chemical and Physical Water Quality Results ........................................................................ 23 Base Flow ................................................................................................................................................................ 23 Field Measurements ............................................................................................................................................. 23 Sodium and Chloride ........................................................................................................................................... 25 Nutrients .............................................................................................................................................................. 26 Metals .................................................................................................................................................................. 28 Fecal Coliform Bacteria ....................................................................................................................................... 28 Additional Observations ...................................................................................................................................... 29 Storm Event Monitoring .......................................................................................................................................... 29 Benthic Macroinvertebrate Surveys ......................................................................................... 31 Benthic data comparisons in 2008 vs 2006 .............................................................................................................. 33 2008 benthic data ..................................................................................................................................................... 33 Aquatic Habitat Assessments ..................................................................................................... 36 Total Habitat Data. .................................................................................................................................................. 39 Summary of Sub-Habitat Metrics ........................................................................................................................... 39 Stream Corridor Reconnaissance .............................................................................................. 42 Heatherly Creek ....................................................................................................................................................... 45 Lovills Creek ........................................................................................................................................................... 48 Discussion..................................................................................................................................... 51 Drought Stress ......................................................................................................................................................... 54 Lovills and Heatherly Creeks .................................................................................................................................. 55 Other Streams and Subwatersheds ........................................................................................................................... 57 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................. 60 Recommendations ....................................................................................................................... 60 Stormwater BMPs .................................................................................................................................................... 60 Stream Restoration .................................................................................................................................................. 62 Agricultural BMPs ................................................................................................................................................... 63 Preservation ............................................................................................................................................................. 63 Other Recommendations ......................................................................................................................................... 64 Literature Cited .......................................................................................................................... 65 Appendices ................................................................................................................................... 68 North Carolina Stream Classifications, Water Quality Standards and Action Levels ............................................. 68 Laboratory Results. .................................................................................................................................................. 77 i Tables and Figures Table 1. NCDWQ WAT and BAU water quality monitoring locations and descriptions. ................................. 15 Table 2. Selected benthic data and total habitat scores for BAU monitoring locations. .................................... 32 Table 3. Selected habitat scores for BAU monitoring locations. ........................................................................... 38 Table 4. Composition (%) of bottom substrates and particle sizes for BAU benthic sites. ................................ 41 Table 5. Potential stressors, sources and effects in the Ararat River Watershed. .............................................. 52 Table 6. Summary of sources and stressors to watershed functions in the Ararat River watershed. ............... 53 Table 7. NC water quality standards and action levels. ....................................................................................... 69 Table 8. Summary of benthic macroinvertebrate sampling prior to 2008........................................................... 70 Table 9. NPDES facilities with reported violations (January, 2002 - December 2007). ...................................... 72 Table 10. Chemical analyses, methods and reporting limits. ...............................................................................