Tuesday, 05/09/06

'Better' still isn't ideal for Harpeth River quality

FRANKLIN — Developers and construction companies are often blamed for muddying the county's waters. It's easy to see the chocolate-colored water coming from a hillside that's been cleared by bulldozers.

But Joe Holland, who manages the Nashville-area field office for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation's water pollution control division, said he's seen vast improvements in both the attitudes of developers and the efforts put into keeping silt from leaving construction sites. Williamson County is leading the way toward regulating, implementing and maintaining erosion prevention and sediment controls, Holland said.

"I was here in the day when they weren't doing anything," Holland said. "There's so much construction activity. It's hard to have the volume of construction activity without seeing an impact."

Despite the improvement, more than 252 miles of creeks, streams and parts of the Harpeth River in Williamson County are polluted and impaired, according to TDEC.

The majority of local streams appearing on a list created by TDEC to highlight polluted waterways suffer from excess siltation caused by land-disturbing activities such as construction and agriculture. Portions of these creeks and small tributaries flowing into the Harpeth River are lined with mud and sediment that kills small aquatic organisms living under rocks. This silt has affected more than 20 miles of the Harpeth River, choking out the invertebrates that fish and other wildlife rely on for food.

An estimated 275 environmentalists, engineers, developers and builders will be in Williamson County Wednesday and Thursday for the Muddy Water Blues, a conference that combines classroom training and onsite demonstrations of products and technology used to reduce erosion and improve the quality of stormwater runoff entering local watersheds. The conference will be held at the county's Ag Expo Park.

"We think education is the problem solver," said Don Green, stormwater coordinator for the city of Franklin. "With the rapid growth the city and the county are experiencing it is imperative that engineers, land developers and contractors become educated about better site design, ways to reduce runoff and improve the quality of the water leaving their site."

Many people in the stormwater industry say their goal is to actually improve the quality of local creeks and streams, hoping that in the near future many waterways will be taken off TDEC's 303 (d) list of impaired streams. Members of the Harpeth River Watershed Association say there's hope for the Harpeth River. The group works with municipalities, developers and encourages public education efforts to get more people focused on the river. Association members have organized stream bank restoration projects, litter collection days, hikes and talks about impacts to local streams. They have trained volunteers to collect and test water samples and are trying to get residents to think about how they might be contributing to the river's decline.

Tightened regulations

Whether they want to or not, developers must use every trick in their trade to keep dirt from leaving a construction site. Anyone disturbing just an acre of land must have a stormwater permit. Federal, state and local laws demand it.

These new regulations, which took effect in 2003 for most of Williamson County, are costing developers more money and more time, but are keeping waterways clean when carried out correctly.

"Used to be we would do a grading job and never get inspected," said Joe Rodgers, president of Civil Constructors, a firm that build roads and prepares development sites for building. "Now we have to put in all these erosion control items and they have to be inspected. There are additional permits and that slows down the approval process by weeks before you can actually start construction."

As construction occurs developers must submit biweekly reports to TDEC, and monitor erosion controls. Rodgers said many companies have had to hire or train one person whose job it is to design such controls and monitor them.

Rodgers said such regulations are a good thing, but said those inspecting the erosion control measures need to be a little more practical. He said erosion control features like silt fences, ponds and rock dams have to be approved by the municipality where construction occurs. He's seen inspectors visit a site that has already been approved and demand even more controls.

"It can be endless," Rodgers said. "They can keep going on and on. That adds cost to the developer or owner."

Robert Karesh, watershed quality director for the Harpeth River Watershed Association, was a stormwater inspector for more than 10 years. He said the development community is "doing much better than it has in the past," but feels there is still room for improvement.

"There's been a lot of poor design work where the (erosion) controls don't work," Karesh said. "Contractors build it as designed, but it wasn't designed correctly."

Green said he's sent 18 notices of violation to companies building in Franklin during the past two years.

"That really does not reflect the problems we are experiencing especially with home builders," Green said. "We try to work with the developer or homebuilder. We usually point out any problems that we observe and request them to address the problems or install erosion and sediment controls that were not installed initially."

When they don't, or when a problem is identified as chronic more violation notices are sent, Green said. Companies that don't comply can be fined or forced to stop construction until stormwater problems are fixed.

No. 1 pollutant source

Highways, roads, bridges and infrastructure construction are a key pollutant source to several streams in Williamson County, but the biggest source is grazing cattle.

There are 37 local waterways listed as impaired on a draft version of TDEC's 303 (d) list and "pasture grazing" is noted as the pollutant source in 18 of those streams. Holland said that means water quality assessors noted that cows had access to streams, trampled banks, ate nearby vegetation or "overgrazed" on pasture near a stream. In some cases fecal matter was found in water samples.

A six-mile stretch of Cayce Branch has been impacted by cattle grazing near and entering the water.

Tom Womack, spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, said there have been ongoing efforts to minimize the impact cattle have on state waters. Womack said there are state and federally funded programs which provide farmers money to fence livestock from a waterway, create stream crossings or restore vegetation along a bank. Farmers are also encouraged to engage in the practice of rotational grazing, which is moving cattle from pasture to pasture.

"From the farmers' standpoint, doing that is a lot of trouble," said DeWayne Perry, an agent with the University of Tennessee's Agricultural Extension Service. Maintain fences near creeks that flood can be time consuming and costly. Moving cattle from one pasture to another can create a management problem, Perry said.

"Something we've been trying to promote is limited access to streams," Perry said. "You've got certain areas for cattle to come in and drink. That could help protect the water."

A model project

Rows of hay bales and black, fabric fence have been set up along a stream near Ladd Road, where bulldozers sit silent. In the coming weeks these steel giants will tear into pasture land and begin construction of a 1,000-home subdivision being billed as "environmentally engineered."

The Highlands at Ladd Park has been designed to have nearly 40 percent park and open space. Developers of the subdivision made it a point to protect several stands of trees. The entire development has been built with the idea that small ponds will filter stormwater runoff and protect the water quality of the Harpeth River.

"What we're doing is really out of the box," said Mark Dietze, a partner in Trillium Ventures, the company developing The Highlands at Ladd Park. "We take it very serious that this development is upstream of Franklin's water intake. There is a cost, but the cost of not doing it is significantly higher."

Dietze has worked with members of the Harpeth River Watershed Association, planning a barrage of erosion controls and ways to filter sediment and other pollutants out of water before it reaches the river. Robert Karesh said he hasn't seen a developer do everything right, but thinks The Highlands at Ladd Park has potential.

"Their intentions are very good," Karesh said. "They've got a good shot at doing a super job."

The subdivision will feature biofiltration systems comprised of small ponds, pervious surface that allows water to seep into the ground, buffer space between developed area and creeks, and required use of organic fertilizers by all future residents.