Section 319
NONPOINT SOURCE PROGRAM SUCCESS STORY
Batie Creek Restoration Helps to Protect Unique Karst Habitats
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Batie Creekwas listed on Virginia's 303(d) list of impaired waters in
19g8. Tne creek was listed because of low dissolved oxygen levels,
caused by inflows of anoxic leachate due to a lumber company's improper disposal of sawdust. The
low dissolved oxygen levels negatively affected a population of endangered cave isopods (a type of
crustacean) in Batie Creek's headwaters. With help from an array of partners, led by the section 319-
funded Karst Program of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation's Division of Natural
Heritage, the company removed and reused most of the decomposing sawdust. Dissolved oxygen
levels have rebounded, prompting the removal of Batie Creek from the impaired waters list in 2006.
Problem
Batie Creek flows through a karst region of
Lee County in southwest Virginia. Its base flow
originates with two springs, Batie East and Batie
West. The springs are fed by water flowing
through caves formed in Lee County's karst geol-
ogy. (Areas with karst geology are characterized
by sinkholes, underground streams, and caverns.)
The caves of Lee County host a diverse and abun-
dant fauna of cave-adapted invertebrates. Among
the caves is Thompson Cedar Cave, where in
the 1960s cave biologists John Holsinger and
Dave Culver discovered the first Lee County Cave
isopod (Lirceus usdagalun).
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the sawdust
disposal activities of a lumber company generat-
ed anoxic leachate rich in lignins and tannins. The
leachates contaminated the entire %-mile length
of Batie Creek, from the headwater springs to
the creek's confluence with the Powell River. The
decomposition of the sawdust generated anoxic
leachate that drained into Thompson Cedar Cave,
eliminating nearly all aquatic life, including the
rare isopod. In 1992 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service (LJSFWS) listed the Lee County Cave
isopod as endangered under the provisions of the
Endangered Species Act. The dissolved oxygen
levels at Batie West Spring from the late 1980s
through the early 1990s ranged from 5.5 to 1.0
mg/L, generally declining over that period. During
that period, all but one reading was below the
5.0 mg/L standard for surface streams. In 1998
the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
(DEQ) placed Batie Creek on the 303(d) list as
impaired because the stream's dissolved oxygen
levels were less than half of the 5.0 mg/L neces-
sary to support aquatic life.
Project Highlights
In the late 1980s, soon after the discovery of
sawdust at Thompson Cedar Cave, the Virginia
Cave Board established a voluntary agreement
with the lumber company to have the sawdust
removed from the cave entrance. Working
through the governor-appointed Virginia Cave
Board, of which Holsinger was chair, an agree-
ment was reached with the lumber company,
which removed the sawdust from the cave
entrance and agreed to address the issue. During
the 1990s, however, the sawmill's production
increased, generating vast sawdust stockpiles
that led to further contamination of the Batie
Creek system.
In 1994 the Virginia Department of Conservation
and Recreation's Division of Soil and Water
Conservation provided EPA section 319 funding
to OCR's Division of Natural Heritage to establish
the Karst Program. That program established the
Batie Creek Task Force and gathered data. OCR
Karst Program staff performed dye trace stud-
ies that verified a connection between the cave
stream and Batie West Spring. In 1998 indepen-
dent reports by Virginia Water Resources Center
and Virginia DEQ established the dissolved
oxygen impairment of Batie Creek and identified
breakdown of the sawdust as the culprit.
Virginia DEQ issued a consent decree to the
lumber company, allowing it to operate under the
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condition that the sawdust would be removed
within 5 years. The company quickly found an
economically viable way to dispose of newly gen-
erated and recent sawdust, but the older material
remained a problem. In 2000 OCR Karst Program
staff developed a strategy involving multiple
partners to address the historic sawdust stockpile
issue. The Cave Conservancy of the Virginias
funded Virginia Tech researchers, who proved that
decomposing sawdust could be used to amend
soil at mined land reclamation projects. The OCR
Karst Program then took those results to the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service and the Tennessee Valley
Authority, which teamed up to fund the trans-
port of sawdust to project sites for use as a soil
amendment in reclaiming mined land.
Results
By the summer of 2002, dissolved oxygen levels
had rebounded to 5.8 mg/L, allowing aquatic life,
including the Lee County Cave isopod, to return to
Thompson Cedar Cave. (The OCR Karst Program
staff believes that some isopods had survived
in an uncontaminated upstream cave.) In 2006
Virginia DEQ removed Batie Creek from the list of
impaired streams. As of January 2007, an insig-
nificant amount of actively decomposing sawdust
remained on the lumber company's property.
Dissolved oxygen values at Batie West Spring
have remained healthy since 2001 (Figure 1).
Partners and Funding
From 1994 through FY2006 Virginia OCR's Division
of Soil and Water Conservation provided more
than $1.3 million in the form of annual EPA sec-
tion 319 grants to Virginia OCR's Natural Heritage
Program to fund the Karst Program, which has
worked to improve water quality throughout the
state's karst areas. Approximately $250,000 in
section 319 funding for the Karst Program has
gone toward providing the technical and staff sup-
port needed for the Karst Program to spearhead
interagency efforts to remediate the Batie Creek
system. The Virginia Water Resources Center
and Virginia DEQ provided monitoring and other
technical support. Other partners include the
following: the Cave Conservancy of the Virginias
provided a $10,000 grant for the characterization
of decomposing sawdust for use a soil amend-
ment, Virginia Tech offered technical expertise,
USFWS provided $100,000 to support the trans-
port of sawdust for incorporation as a beneficial
soil amendment for coal mine reclamation, and
the Tennessee Valley Authority provided funding
and facilitated the reuse of old sawdust.
Figure 1. Regression of dissolved oxygen 1998-2007.
Dissolved Oxygen in Batie East and Batie West over time
72.00
-2.00
Date
I
55
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
"& Office of Water
g Washington, DC
EPA841-F-07-001O
September 2007
For additional information contact:
Wil Orndorff, Karst Protection Coordinator
Virginia Natural Heritage Program
540-831-4056
wil.orndorff@dcr.virginia.gov
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