A Report on Water Quality to the Citizens of Durham The State of Our Streams: 2009 What a year for water quality in the newspaper! The year began with articles about a proliferation of algae in the Eno River State Park in March. The North Carolina Help Stop Stormwater Pollution! Department of Parks and Recreation warned park visitors not to allow children to play on Call 560-SWIM to report anything in the shoreline nor allow pets to drink or swim creeks or storm drains that is not water! in the pond formed by an abandoned quarry in the park. The algae eventually died off with no interference from park officials. Falls Lake was in the newspaper regularly starting in May. Some headlines focused on testing for bacteria at lake beaches while others focused on the politics of Falls Lake nutrient management rules. A shorter series of articles dealing with bacteria at Falls and Jordan lake beaches highlighted the inconsistent testing at these recreation areas. Articles describing Falls Lake included results of the NC Division of Water Quality’s study of Falls Lake from 2005 through 2007, efforts to put strategies and laws into place to meet state standards, and potential costs to local governments in order to meet the state standards. City staff have appeared on DTV8, the Durham government news channel, discussing both Falls Lake Headlines from The News & Observer and the environmental conditions and projects that Durham Herald-Sun will address water quality issues. like these and those in other public outlets. Over 100 miles downstream of Falls Lake The headlines shown here focus on the and Raleigh, the Neuse River Estuary was readily identifiable impacts of poor water also in the news during the late summer of quality, such as unsafe swimming and fish 2009. The environmental damage was kills. Less extreme impacts of pollutant may clearly more devastating in the Neuse River cause worse fishing or smelly water. Estuary, where the death of millions of fish (Atlantic menhaden) was attributed to low There is no reason to think that water quality dissolved oxygen . This fish kill continued news items will disappear since the state is for more than a week. considering new water quality regulations. We can all look forward to additional public The Triangle area is becoming increasingly information both through our local papers aware of water quality issues due to articles and DTV8. City of Durham Stormwater Services—(919) 560-4326 www.DurhamNC.gov/stormwater Design/Plan Review—Drainage/Flooding Concerns—Floodplain Information Stormwater Public Education—Surface Water Quality The State of Our Streams: 2009 Investigations are set up to earn a profit. Mobile car Illicit discharges are a source of pollution in washes that do not properly control wash urban areas. Illicit discharges are those water can be a significant source of pollution discharges that occur without city, state, or to the city storm sewer and city streams. federal knowledge of the discharge or of the Proper collection and disposal of wash water environmental impacts. Illicit discharges is possible and encouraged (see photo below include a variety of acts generally resulting for an example of proper containment). in illegal dumping. For example, pouring oil Businesses are required to contact into storm drains, disposing of pet wastes in storm drains, discharges from failing septic Stormwater Services (560-SWIM) to systems and leaky sanitary sewers, overflows demonstrate proper containment and from clogged sanitary sewer systems, and disposal when obtaining a business license. direct connections of private sanitary sewer laterals to stormwater pipes instead of Number of Water Quality Investigations sanitary sewer pipes are all illicit discharges. Identifying Pollutant Sources, 2004—2009 One type of discharge now reported separately is commercial mobile car washing. While this has been a minor source for several years, the number of these businesses has proliferated. These businesses set up and wash cars in shopping center parking lots, on vacant lots, or other businesses where pavement is generally unused. Mobile car washing businesses are not the same as charity car washes by the band boosters, the cub scouts, or the football team. These are businesses that Anything that is poured, thrown, or flows Sources and Types of Pollution Found into a storm drain goes into our creeks in 2009 and streams. Stormwater does not re- ceive treatment ! The number of water quality 115 investigations that identified pollution sources, 2008-2009 Mobile car washing with containment City of Durham Stormwater Services page 2 The State of Our Streams: 2009 The City has limited staff and resources to improve water quality. Therefore, it is The index provides a water quality grade essential that citizens become involved and that ranges from 0 to 100 relative to other provide additional eyes, ears, and noses to streams in Durham County. All urban help find and eliminate sources of pollution. streams generally fail to meet at least one Call 560-SWIM to report water pollution. federal or state water quality standard, so all urban streams fail in some manner. However, the water quality index allows Water Quality Monitoring Program citizens and Stormwater Services to identify Federal permitting regulations require the those areas with the most serious pollution City of Durham to monitor water quality in issues. local streams. Stormwater Services staff collect water samples from streams throughout the city on a regular basis. Analyses of these samples includes biochemical oxygen demand, nutrients, 2009 Water Quality Index Results sediment and metals. Fecal coliform bacteria The water quality index results for 2009 are is also analyzed regularly. These summarized in Figure 1. Red indicates the measurements allow City and State staff to poorest water quality. At the other end of the evaluate potential risks to people, drinking color range, dark green shows better quality water supplies and aquatic resources (e.g., water. Between the extremes is a range of fish, waterfowl). conditions: yellow-green indicates some pollution, while light orange through dark Stormwater Services staff also collect aquatic orange or red indicates increasing pollution. life to learn about water quality. Aquatic organisms, or benthic macroinvertebrates, Colored areas in the map correspond to the are collected annually to learn which streams area that contributed to the index result. no longer support the insects that would be These areas are called watersheds and present if the watershed was minimally indicate the land area contributing water and disturbed. In 2009, the Stormwater Services pollution to the stream. In general, staff conducted a combination of chemical stormwater runoff from highly urbanized and microbiological monitoring at 50 watersheds (e.g., downtown and older areas locations. surrounding downtown) degrades water quality more than sparsely developed or rural areas. Industrial areas also degrade Water Quality Index water quality and this may be happening off To provide an overall picture of the health of Miami Boulevard. our streams, Stormwater Services combines many of the chemical measurements of Similarly, results for fecal coliform bacteria water quality into a water quality index. The are summarized in Figure 2. A similar color water quality index is a grade for our scheme is provided to distinguish more streams. Looking at this grade from year to polluted areas from less polluted areas. year can indicate overall progress in cleaning up area streams. The water quality index can also be used to identify target areas to clean ups and to The water quality index summarizes identify the potential for new pollution chemical data collected at 50 locations sources that need to be investigated. in and around the City of Durham. City of Durham Stormwater Services page 3 The State of Our Streams: 2009 City of Durham Stormwater Services page 4 The State of Our Streams: 2009 City of Durham Stormwater Services page 5 The State of Our Streams: 2009 Explanation of Watershed Attachments standards, a geometric mean of 200 colony forming units (cfu) per 100 milliliters (mL) In order to provide additional information to and the number of exceedances of 400 citizens, attachments were created for the cfu/100mL. Ratings are as follows: primary watersheds in the City of Durham. Good: Meets both state standards These attachments provide a description of Fair: Meets geometric mean standard the watershed, a historical look back on Poor: Does not meet either standard water quality for the last five years, and a description of water quality during 2009. Aquatic life (Insects or benthic macro- invertebrates): This parameter is a direct Water quality information is summarized measure of the variety of organisms found in using non-technical terms, as follows: City streams. These organisms live on roots, under rocks and under leaves. The greater Water Quality Index (WQI): The WQI is the variety of insects, the better the rating. provided for each water quality monitoring This parameter is also a measure of the site at which a sufficient number of different pollution sensitivity of the organisms. When parameters and pollutants is measured. The organisms that are sensitive to pollution are WQI can be thought as a public school test present and the pollution tolerant organisms grade; numbers close to 100 are an “A” and are not abundant, the overall rating numbers less than 60 are an “F”. The WQI increases. The aquatic life rating is often a does not apply state water quality standards better indicator of overall water quality than to monitoring data as other indicators the water quality index. described below, but is used by Stormwater Staff to identify problem areas. Stormwater Services staff receives more Clarity : Sediment washed into citizen questions regarding harmful bacteria streams can cause the water to appear than any other water quality parameter cloudy or muddy. One measure of sediment monitored.