The Quality of Water in Alabama

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Application of Watershed Science for Aquatic
Species Recovery and Restoration Through the
Strategic Habitat Unit Initiative
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Recovery Objective
Preventing the extinction of those species listed
as endangered, and arresting the continued
decline of those species listed as threatened.

• Protection of surviving mussel populations and
  their stream and river habitats
• Enhancement and restoration of habitats
• Population management including augmentation and
  reintroduction into portions of their historic
  ranges

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Strategic Habitat Units in the Mobile River
Basin --Bridging Watershed Management and Species
Recovery--
Continue to assess vulnerable populations
Refine biological assessment measures and use
them to monitor critical habitat units
Focus on strategic habitat units for stream and
watershed restoration activities
Link ecological and population response with
habitat alteration
Link habitat alteration with flow and land
alteration
Proper flow management coupled with effective
land-use and watershed management will lead to
stable habitat
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How Do you Deal With Such A Complex Subject --
Watershed Science
Watershed science is an interdisciplinary field
of study concerned with the relationships between
humans and their natural environments at the
watershed level. It recognizes that human and
natural systems exist in linked social-ecological
systems with complex interactions between human
decisions and ecosystem functions.
--Interdisciplinary Water Research--
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Principles of Watershed Science
Aquatic biology
Fisheries
Limnology
Hydrologic science
Environmental chemistry
Water management technology
Water policy and regulation
Water quality
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Mobile River Basin SHU Project

• Conduct watershed studies at selected SHUs
• Provide interpretive watershed data for use in
  recovery and restoration

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Current SHU Work Plan
North River Big Canoe Creek Terrapin
Creek Sipsey River (Tombigbee)
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SHU methodology

• Watershed characterization and assessment.
• Identification of major watershed issues
  affecting listed species.
• Development of an action plan and projects to
  address watershed issues.
• Reintroduction and(or) augmentation of
  populations as needed.

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SHU methodology watershed characterization and
problem identification

• Hydrogeologic and physiographic setting
• Biological monitoring data reflecting current
  condition of biological communities watershed
  biological profiles
• Habitat assessment information to determine the
  extent of habitat degradation and availability
  of habitat for species of conservation concern.
• Water quality data to determine contaminant
  concentrations and to calculate parameter
  loadings.
• Sediment loading data to determine the relative
  degree of sediment flux through a watershed.
• GIS management of all data.

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Watershed Biological Profiles
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Alabama CooperativeIBI Project
G
F
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GIS projects for each critical habitat unit have
been produced. These will enable stakeholders to
view cultural and natural features which
influence the water quality of their watersheds

• Roads (Tiger line files)
• Digital elevation model (DEM)
• 2001 National Land Cover Database
• GNIS (place name database)
• Streams and water bodies (National Hydrography
  Database)
• HUC 12 watershed boundaries
• Ecoregions (EPA)
• Geology (GSA)
• County boundaries (U.S. Census Bureau)
• NPDES sites (ADEM)

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North River system
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NORTH RIVER Geology
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NORTH RIVER Land Cover-Land Use
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NORTH RIVER Mussels
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NORTH RIVER Mussels
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NORTH RIVER Habitat Assessments
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NORTH RIVER Fish IBI Assessments
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• NORTH RIVER
• Water Quality
• 303(d) list
• elevated nutrients
• habitat alteration
• elevated E. coli
• elevated conductance

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E. coli Concentrations

• Low flow period (Sept-Oct)
• Range 1 14,670 cfu/100mL
• Median 100 cfu/100mL
• High flow period (April-June)
• Range 22 17,980 cfu/100mL
• Median 488 cfu/100mL

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Frequency of E. coli by Flow Regime in the North
River/ Lake Tuscaloosa Watershed
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NORTH RIVER Distribution of E. coli measurements
throughout the watershed at different hydrologic
regimes.
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ADEM Trophic Status Evaluation of Lake Tuscaloosa
(2002)

• North River
• Mesotrophic Apr, Jun, Jul
• Eutrophic May, Aug, Sep, Oct.
• Upper Lake Tuscaloosa-
• Mesotrophic Apr, Jun, Jul, Sep, Oct
• Eutrophic May, Aug

• Middle Lake Tuscaloosa-
• Oligotrophic Oct
• Mesotrophic Apr-Sep

• Lower Lake Tuscaloosa-
• Oligotrophic Apr, May, Jun
• Mesotrophic Jul, Aug, Sept, Oct

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Specific conductance profileAugust 2009
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Deadwater Creek
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Clear Creek
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Binion Creek
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Carrolls Creek
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North River Watershed Project--not yet hatched--
Black Warrior Clean Water Partnership
City of Tuscaloosa
ADEM
Patton Geologic
Almon and Associates
Alabama Highway Department
U.S. Geological Survey
Tuscaloosa County Health Dept.
Geological Survey of Alabama
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Big Canoe Creek system
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Rediscovery of the trispot darter (Etheostoma
trisella) in Alabama
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• First collected (one specimen) in 1947 from
  Cowans Creek, Ala., a Coosa River tributary, by
  E.A. Lachner and P.S. Handwerk.
• Type locality inundated by Weiss Lake in 1960.
• Described R. M. Bailey and W.J Richards in 1963
  based on this one specimen.
• Another specimen discovered by Howell and
  Caldwell in 1967 in a collection made by Lachner
  and Schwartz in 1954 from Swamp Creek, Ga.
• Last known Alabama specimen collected in 1958 by
  J.S Dendy from Coosa River main channel near
  Gadsden.
• Listed as EXTIRPATED from state waters 2004.
• Rediscovered October 2008 in the Big Canoe Creek
  system.

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Big Canoe Creek system
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Beulah Church Breeding Site
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67g Southern Shale Valleys