Section 319
NONPOINT SOURCE PROGRAM SUGGEST STORY
Debris Removal Restores Water Quality
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Debris in Alaska's Sawmill Creek violated water quality
standards for residues and prompted Alaska to include the
creek on its inventory of impaired waters in 1996. Alaska classified Sawmill Creek as a
Category 4b ("impaired water with other pollution controls") in its 2002 Integrated Report.
The Takshanuk Watershed Council (TWC) led an effort to clean up and restore Sawmill
Creek. With help from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), TWC
organized events and actions that ultimately led to the removal of 27,000 pounds of scrap
metal and 132 bags of trash in 2006 and 2007. As a result, the creek met the residue
standard, and DEC removed debris from the list of impairments for Sawmill Creek in 2008.
Problem
Sawmill Creek (Figure 1) flows through Haines
Borough in southeastern Alaska, approximately
85 miles north of Juneau. The creek drains a
1.61-square-mile urban watershed and ulti-
mately flows into Alaska's Chilkat River. Haines
has a population of approximately 2,000 and
is a popular site for tourists. Water quality
degradation in the creek has been an issue
since the mid-1990s. Highway debris, such
as litter, is the biggest obstacle to restoring
water quality. Along many Alaskan waterways
in urban settings, people often illegally dump
trash and sometimes large debris (such as cars
and machinery). In some cases in the past,
abandoned cars were used to stabilize certain
stream bank sections. This debris can migrate
downstream and clog and damage culverts,
frequently blocking fish passage.
The state standard for residue and debris pro-
hibits any deposits on streambeds, shorelines
or lakes that negatively affect designated uses.
The debris in Sawmill Creek caused the creek
to violate the standard, and Alaska included
the 6.1-mile long creek on the state's inventory
of impaired waters in 1996. Because Haines
Borough had already initiated cleanup efforts
and planned stream improvements, DEC clas-
sified Sawmill Creek as Category 4b ("impaired
water with other pollution controls") in its 2002
Integrated Report.
Figure 1. A forested portion of Alaska's Sawmill
Creek.
Project Highlights
In 1997 a local citizens group and DEC began
restoring Sawmill Creek by replacing a culvert
and removing some debris. A 2003 grant from
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (USFWS's)
Coastal Program funded a project to reroute
the creek away from the road onto private
property and monitor the project's success.
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With collaborative help from DEC, TWC and
citizen volunteers began participating in annual
trash removal days in 2004. The Chamber of
Commerce now sponsors the annual stream
cleanups as part of its Spring Cleanup Week.
These cleanups continue to be a success-
ful way to remove debris from the creek and
educate citizens about debris impairments. For
the 2007 and 2008 cleanups, TWC took the
title as King and Queen of Trash in recognition
of being the organization that collected the
most trash.
The Alaska legislature also provided funding to
support the Sawmill Creek restoration effort.
TWC alerted State Representative Thomas,
who successfully obtained funding from the
state capital budget to replace a deteriorat-
ing culvert blocking fish passage on Sawmill
Creek's mainstem—a project that was com-
pleted in early summer 2008. Representative
Thomas secured an additional appropriation to
replace a culvert in another part of the Sawmill
Basin and to support TWC as it works with
Alaska Department of Transportation to restore
a section of the creek adjacent to its local
maintenance yard.
Results
In 2006 and 2007 the TWC and citizen volun-
teers removed 27,000 pounds of scrap metal
and 132 bags of trash from Sawmill Creek,
including one large deposit of abandoned
vehicles and assorted refuse from the creek's
bank. Public education is helping to eliminate
the public acceptance of using abandoned
vehicles for stream bank stabilization and has
increased the number of children and adults in
the community who are aware of the habitat
values of Sawmill Creek.
TWC believes that raising the profile of the
creek and its impairment has helped to change
the community's attitude about dumping in
the creek and has decreased the prevalence of
debris dumping and littering. In fact, TWC has
seen no new large-scale dumping in the past
few years.
The project partners successfully removed
the majority of the debris originally impairing
Sawmill Creek, and the creek is now meeting
the water quality standard. Consequently, DEC
removed debris from the list of impairments
for Sawmill Creek in 2008. TWC performs
periodic fish and benthic macroinvertebrates
sampling to indicate in-stream water quality;
while sampling, the group continues to visually
monitor Sawmill Creek for debris.
Partners and Funding
Alaska DEC helped TWC organize events
and Sawmill Creek restoration activities. The
USFWS funded restoring a branch of the creek
and subsequent monitoring work. The Alaska
legislature provided more than $360,000 to
replace culverts and restore the stream in
2008. TWC received two separate Alaska
Clean Water Actions (ACWA) grants ($5,390
and $30,000) in 2007 that supported a number
of efforts including assessing the watershed,
monitoring associated with this assessment,
removing debris, and stabilizing and revegetat-
ing stream banks. Section 319 funds are a
component of ACWA grants and thus contrib-
uted to ACWA-funded projects.
Grants from EPA's Environmental Education
program, the local Chilkoot Indian Association
and the Charlotte Martin Foundation have
funded education activities with students
in the watershed. Students from the Haines
Borough school district helped with a number
of the cleanup events. Haines Borough pro-
vided equipment and operator time to remove
larger items, such as cars, from the creek.
Private landowners supported and helped with
cleanup efforts on their property.
An additional $15,000 in ACWA funding will
support a 2009 discharge and sediment study.
TWC is identifying habitat impairments and
rehabilitation needs and forming a partnership
with the Department of Fish and Game to set
up stream gauging stations. Haines Borough
has set aside $20,000 in funds to purchase land
for conservation purposes in the watershed
and funded a restoration plan for future work.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
z Washington, DC
o
EPA841-F-08-001DD
October 2008
For additional information contact:
Tim Shields, Executive Director
Takshanuk Watershed Council
907-766-3542 • takshanuk@gmail.com
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