Section 319
NONPOINT SOURCE PROGRAM SUCCESS STORY
Addressing Agricultural and Residential Sources of Bacteria Improves
Upper Clinch River Water Quality
Waterbodv Improved Bacteria Ioadin9s from livestock, septic systems, pets
' ' '' ''"' • - and wildlife led to high bacteria counts in Virginia's Clinch
River which violated water quality standards. As a result, the Virginia Department of
Environmental Quality (DEQ) added a 5.38-mile segment of the Clinch River to Virginia's
2004 Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters for failure to attain
its primary contact recreation designated use. Installing agricultural best management
practices (BMPs) and constructing a public sanitary sewer collection system decreased
bacteria levels in the Upper Clinch River. These measures allowed Virginia to remove the
5.38-mile segment of the Clinch River from its list of impaired waters in 2012.
Problem
The 115,000-acre Upper Clinch River watershed is
in Tazewell County and is a part of the Clinch River
watershed in southwestern Virginia. The land use is
68 percent forest and 19 percent pasture and hay;
the remaining 13 percent consists of developed,
mining and water land uses. Bacteria loadings from
livestock, septic systems, pets and wildlife led to
high bacteria counts in the Clinch River.
Before 2008, to meet bacteria standards, no more
than 10 percent of samples (based on a minimum of
12 samples) could exceed a single sample maxi-
mum fecal coliform value of 400 colony-forming
units per 100 milliliters of water (cfu/100 ml).
The bacteria samples collected over the 1998-
2002 assessment period at monitoring station
6BCLN321.13 violated this standard 29 percent of
the time, leading to the 2004 CWA section 303(d)
listing of segment VAS-P03R _ CLN02AOO in the
Upper Clinch River for failure to attain its primary
recreation designated use. This impaired segment
extends from the confluence with Dry Branch
downstream to the Raven-Doran raw water intake
just upstream from Town Hill Creek (Figure 1).
The segment was subsequently listed again in 2008
for Escherichia co//when the bacteria standard
changed to require that no more than 10 percent of
samples (based on a minimum of 12 samples) can
Figure 1. Segment VAS-P03R _ CLN02AOO (shown in red) is in the
southwest corner of the Upper Clinch River watershed.
exceed a single sample maximum E. co//value of
235 cfu/100 ml. In the 5-year sampling period lead-
ing up to 2008, E. coli samples collected at monitor-
ing station 6BCLN321.13 had a 24 percent violation
rate of this standard.
DEQ developed a sediment total maximum daily
load (TMDL) for the Upper Clinch River watershed in
2004 and an implementation plan for the sediment
TMDL in 2007. DEQ finalized a bacteria TMDL for
the Upper Clinch River in 2011.
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Project Highlights
Watershed landowners, led by the Tazewell Soil and
Water Conservation District (SWCD), began imple-
menting agricultural BMPs as part of the sediment
TMDL implementation project (2007-2012). Many of
the BMPs identified to curb erosion on agricultural
lands, such as excluding livestock from streams
and planting riparian buffers, also helped to reduce
bacteria. The Virginia Department of Conservation
and Recreation (OCR) maintains a BMP tracking
database that contains records of agricultural and
residential septic BMPs installed in watersheds
statewide through OCR and DEQ grant funds.
Based on database records from 2006 to 2012, agri-
cultural practices installed in the Upper Clinch River
watershed included 12.3 miles of livestock stream
exclusion fencing installed, 10 acres of harvestable
cover crop planted, and 28 acres of riparian forest
buffer implemented. An off-site alternate livestock
watering system was also installed. To increase
project participation, the Tazewell SWCD conducted
outreach efforts in the watershed, including mailing
flyers, coordinating field trips and giving presenta-
tions to community members.
To address ongoing problems with failing septic
systems, in 2011 the town of Richlands constructed
a public sanitary sewer collection system that
delivers wastewater to the Richlands Regional
Wastewater Treatment Plant. Although the Clinch
River is outside the service area (approximately
one mile north of the northern area boundary), the
project served to highlight problems with leaking/
failing septics, addressed public health concerns
associated with failing private wastewater treat-
ment and disposal systems, and helped mitigate
existing surface water problems in tributaries to
the Clinch River. Installing both agricultural BMPs
and constructing a public sanitary sewer collec-
tion system resulted in reduced bacteria levels and
improved water quality in the Upper Clinch River.
Results
Progress in reducing the bacteria loadings in the
impaired watershed was reflected by decreasing
violation rates of the bacteria standard. Based on
data from the DEQ ambient monitoring program,
of 45 bacteria samples collected from January
2005 through December 2010 at monitoring sta-
tion 6CBCLN321.13, only three samples exceeded
Clinch River (6BCLN321. 13)
3000
Sampling Time
Figure 2. £ coli data collected for sampling period 2002-2006
(24 percent violation rates in 2008 assessment period) and for
2005-2010 (less than 10 percent in 2012 assessment period
exceeding 235 cfu/100 ml, single sample maximum criterion).
Red markers indicate samples exceeding water quality standard.
theE coli standard—a 6.7 percent violation rate,
which meets the water quality standard requiring
that no more than 10 percent of samples exceed
235 cfu/100 ml (Figure 2). Based on these results,
Virginia removed the 5.38-mile segment from the
impaired waters list in 2012 and classified it as
attaining the bacteria standard in the 2012 Final
305(b)/303(d) Water Quality Assessment Integrated
Report.
Partners and Funding
The water quality improvement in the Upper Clinch
River watershed has primarily been the result of
partnerships between Tazewell SWCD, Virginia OCR
and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural
Resource Conservation Service. The Tazewell
SWCD coordinated the sedimentTMDL implemen-
tation plan and administered cost-share funding,
outreach and technical assistance to implement
agricultural BMPs. The funding for the BMP cost-
share ($533,406) was provided through the state
Water Quality Improvement Fund and the Virginia
Natural Resource Commitment Fund. Landowners
contributed another $133,350. Virginia's State
General Funds supported the project at $25,000 per
year (or $125,000 over 5 years) for technical assis-
tance provided by Tazewell SWCD. General TMDL
implementation guidance was provided by CWA
section 319 grant-funded state staff.
UJ
(9
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA841-F-15-001H
January 2015
For additional information contact:
Charlie Lunsford, Virginia DEQ
Charlie.Lunsford@deq.virginia.gov • 804-698-4172
Martha Chapman, Virginia DEQ
Martha.Chapman@deq.virginia.gov • 276-676-4845
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