Section 319
NONPOINT SOURCE PROGRAM SUCCESS STORY
Implementing Best Management Practices Decreases Aluminum Loading
to Bear Creek
Wotprhnrlv Imnrnx/prl Historical surface mining activities resulted in high aluminum
' ' '' !" • - levels in Bear Creek that violated Alabama's water quality
standards. As a result, a 3-mile segment of Bear Creek was placed on Alabama's 1998
Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list for aluminum impairment. Implementing
numerous best management practices (BMPs) within the watershed, from 2000 to 2005,
decreased aluminum loading in the watershed. This allowed the Alabama Department of
Environmental Management (ADEM) to remove Bear Creek from its list of impaired waters
in 2014 for aluminum impairment.
Problem
The 119-square-mile Bear Creek watershed is part
of the larger Tennessee River Basin. Land use in the
Bear Creek watershed consists of 52 percent forest,
27 percent agriculture, 11 percent grassland/shrubs,
and a few surface mining areas. Historical surface
mining activities in the watershed caused increased
aluminum loading to Bear Creek.
ADEM's water quality regulations do not provide
numeric water quality criteria for aluminum. To
assess for an aluminum impairment in Bear Creek,
ADEM used the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's (EPA's) national recommended freshwater
chronic concentration criterion of 0.087 milligram
per liter (mg/L). Over 90 percent of samples col-
lected from stations BEA-1 and BEA-2 in Bear Creek
from 1992 to 1996 exceeded this concentration. On
the basis of these data, ADEM placed Bear Creek
on the 1998 CWA section 303(d) list for aluminum
impairment. The impaired segment of Bear Creek
(AL06030006-0103-103) is in Marion County and is
approximately 3 miles long (Figure 1).
Project Highlights
Watershed partners launched a 5-year Bear Creek
Watershed Project in August 2000. The overall goal
of the project was to effectively focus federal, state,
local and special interest group resources on solv-
ing the nonpoint source pollution problems in the
Bear Creek watershed. Before the project, formal
Legend
j. Monitoring Sultans
Streams
impaired Reach
a Bear Creek Watershed
Figure 1. The impaired segment is at the base of
northwest Alabama's Bear Creek watershed.
and informal discussions among citizens, landown-
ers, special interest groups and agency representa-
tives took place concerning actual and perceived
pollution sources and impacts in the related
subwatersheds. One primary concern identified dur-
ing stakeholder discussions was accelerated ero-
sion in the watershed. As a result, the Bear Creek
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project required a focus on controlling erosion
along different streambanks, pastures, croplands,
abandoned surface mining land and timber harvest
areas. Because aluminum is positively charged and
bonds with the soil, efforts to reduce erosion in the
watershed provides the added benefit of decreas-
ing aluminum loading in Bear Creek. The BMPs that
were implemented from 2000 to 2005 included filter
strips, streambank protection, exclusion fencing
and resource extraction area restoration.
Results
After restoration, ADEM collected samples in 2009
and 2012. Two of 16 samples collected at station
BEA-1 exceeded the EPA-recommended aluminum
criterion of 0.087 mg/L; five of 16 samples collected
at station BEA-2 exceeded the criterion. However, in
2010 Alabama established an additional guideline in
which the median value of a parameter is compared
against the 90th percentile of that parameter for
relatively undisturbed streams in different ecore-
gions. Stations BEA-1 and BEA-2 passed this guide-
line based on their 2009 and 2012 data, with the
median values at both stations measuring below
the 90th percentile ecoregional reference guideline
for aluminum (Table 1). In addition, when examin-
ing prerestoration data, ADEM found that Bear
Creek samples collected at both BEA-1 and BEA-2
had failed this new measure based on data from
1992-1996, further indicating that water quality has
improved as a result of restoration efforts. Based on
the lack of exceedances of the ecoregional criteria
after restoration, and data showing a decrease in
the number of exceedances of the EPA standard
following restoration, ADEM removed Bear Creek
from its 2014 list of impaired waters for it aluminum
impairment.
Partners and Funding
This project was a cooperative nonpoint source
pollution control endeavor involving at least four
soil and water conservation districts (Colbert,
Franklin, Marion and Winston), the Tennessee
Valley Authority, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation
Service, ADEM, the Bear Creek Outdoor
Environmental Education Center, Alabama Water
Watch, Alabama Cooperative Extension System,
Alabama Cattleman's Association, Alabama
Poultry and Egg Association, Southeastern Poultry
and Egg Consortium, Gold Kist, and the Alabama
Department of Industrial Relations. A total of
$336,947 in CWA section 319 funding was used,
with an additional $375,973 in matching funds
provided by project partners for the restoration
efforts.
Table 1. A comparison of Alabama Ecoregional Reference Guidelines for
Aluminum (Al) against median values (in mg/L) of data collected at Bear
Creek sampling stations
Median Value
Ecoregional Reference
90th Percentile Guideline
Is Median < Ecoregional
90th Percentile Guideline?
Station BEA-1
Al Dissolved
0.045
0.1
yes
Al Total
0.06
0.336
yes
Station BEA-2
Al Dissolved
0.0505
0.1
yes
Al Total
0.0635
0.336
yes
UJ
(9
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA841-F-15-001R
February 2015
For additional information contact:
Mark Sport
CWA Section 319 Project Coordinator
Alabama Department of Environmental Management
334-394-4361 • vms@adem. state, al. us
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