NONPOINT SOURCE SUCCESS STORY
Installing Agricultural and Stormwater Management Practices Reduces
Bacteria in the Lower Soque River below the City of Clarkesville
A/ K H I H Bacteria in runoff from agricultural and urban lands led to high
VaterDOay I 1 proved bacteria counts in Georgia's Soque River below Clarkesville. As a
result, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GAEPD) added a 6-mile segment of the lower
Soque River to its 2002 Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters for failure to
attain its fishing designated use. Beginning in 2008, the installation of agricultural and stormwater
best management practices (BMPs) resulted in decreased bacteria levels that met state water quality
standards. These measures allowed Georgia to remove fecal coliform as an impairment from the 6-mile
segment of the Soque River below Clarkesville in 2014.
Problem
The Soque River is the northeastern-most tributary
of the Chattahoochee River and has a number of
important uses both locally and regionally within
the state (Figure 1). The main stem of the river
serves as the drinking water source for the city of
Clarkesville, and the river's tributaries provide water
for other localities in Habersham County. The small
community of Clarkesville serves as the county seat
of Habersham County. Water quality in the Soque
River below Clarkesville is impacted by both runoff
from the city itself and upstream agricultural areas.
Georgia's water quality standards for the months of
May through October require that fecal coliform not
exceed a geometric mean of 200 colony-forming
units per 100 milliliters (cfu/100 ml). For the months
of November through April, fecal coliform is not to
exceed a geometric mean of 1,000 cfu/100 ml or a
maximum of 4,000 cfu/100 ml for any single sample.
Data collected by GAEPD indicated that these
standards were not being met. In July 2000 the
fecal coliform geometric mean from Georgia
sampling station RV _ 12 _ 3990 (USGS Station #
02331200) was 304 cfu/100 ml. This prompted
GAEPD to add a 6-mile segment of the lower Soque
River (beginning at State Route 17 Bridge in the city
of Clarkesville and ending at the confluence with
the Chattahoochee River) to the 2002 CWA section
303(d) list for not supporting its fishing designated
use. In 2003 GAEPD developed a total maximum
daily load (TMDL) for fecal coliform in the impaired
segment (SR 17, Clarkesville to Chattahoochee River
segment # GAR031300010201). The TMDL was
revised in 2008.
sources include: 305(b} Waters As Assessed National
Extract, Medium Resolution NHDplus Version 2.1 hydrography,
NHDplus Watershed Based Dataset, ESR! USA Census Populated
Places layer, and ESRI world imagery basemap.
Figure 1. The Soque River watershed is in northeastern Georgia.
Project Highlights
The city of Clarkesville has taken an active lead in
addressing the fecal coliform impairment of the
Soque River. In 2013 the city installed a bioreten-
tion area to treat runoff from impervious surfaces
(Figure 2), and implemented a stormwater inventory
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Figure 2. An impervious parking area before construction (left) and
the new bioretention area after construction (right) in Clarkesville.
to identify and prioritize infrastructure needs and
opportunities for additional stormwater practices.
Additionally, a rain garden was installed on public
property in the city of Cornelia.
In 2008 a FY2005 CWA section 319 implementa-
tion grant was initiated to carry out recommenda-
tions outlined in the 2007 Soque River Watershed
Protection Plan. The primary focus areas of the
implementation grant included (1) cost sharing with
20 farmers on cattle exclusion projects to eliminate
fecal coliform bacteria and reduce streambank
erosion, (2) implementing two sediment reduction
BMPs, and (3) implementing two stormwater-control
BMPs. The implementation grant also called for
public education and outreach activities.
The restoration efforts from 2008 to 2014 resulted
in a total of 2,025 acres under contract, including
81,053 linear feet of exclusion and cross-fencing to
facilitate rotational grazing; 174,619 square feet of
heavy-use area protected; six stream crossings built;
and four water wells installed for off-stream water-
ing. Approximately 1,715 animals, predominantly
beef cattle, have been excluded from surface waters.
Streambank restoration work included using a
natural channel design (provided by North Carolina
State University researchers) to restore 585 linear
feet of severely eroding streambanks. Stormwater
restoration projects included a rain barrel distribu-
tion program for homeowners, which distributed
more than 300 barrels over the project span.
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Bacteria Data1 Collected at RV_12_3897 in 2012
Non-swimming Season Swimming Season Non-swimming Season
200
^February
• May
•July
November
•Geomean
*
• •
• •
1 To meet water quality standards, geometric means during swimming season (within grey bar)
must be
ess than 200 cfu/100 mL Geometric means during nonswimming season (outside grey
bar) must be less than 1000 cfu/100 ml.
Figure 3. Data collected in 2012, after restoration, showed that
the fecal coliform geometric in the lower Soque River complied
with water quality standards.
Results
Bacteria samples collected at Georgia sampling
station RV _ 12 _ 3897, (U.S. Geological Survey sta-
tion #02331500) in 2012 by GAEPD and the Soque
River Watershed Association showed the Soque
River below Clarkeville was meeting standards
(Figure 3).
On the basis of these data, GAEPD removed the
fecal coliform impairment from the 6-mile segment
of the lower Soque River on the state's 2014 list of
impaired waters. This segment's list of designated
uses has been expanded to include drinking water.
Partners and Funding
The restoration of the Soque River has primarily been
the result of partnerships between GAEPD and the
city of Clarkesville. CWA section 319 grant funding
was provided from FY2005 and FY2010 (totaling
$789,833) to support the implementation of restora-
tion projects. Another $550,555 in local match and
documented landowner contributions was provided
by the city of Clarkesville to implement these restora-
tion projects. Additional monitoring data to support
the impairment removal was collected by the Soque
River Watershed Association.
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA 841 -F-15-001EEE
December 2015
For additional information contact:
Duncan Hughes, Executive Director
Soque River Watershed Association
soqueriver@windstream.net • 706-754-9382
Jeff Linzer, Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Jeffrey.Linzer@gaepd.org • 404-651-8532
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