13.0  Whiskey Creek

Sampling of Whiskey Creek began in August 1999.  Five stations were chosen; WC-M (at the marina near the creek mouth), WC-AB (off a private dock upstream), WC-MLR (from the bridge at Masonboro Loop Road), WC-SB (in fresh to oligohaline water along the south branch at Hedgerow Lane), and WC-NB (in fresh to oligohaline water along the north branch at Navajo Trail – Fig. 13.1).  Dissolved oxygen concentrations were below the State standard on two of 12 occasions at WC-MB and WC-AB in 2002-2003 (Table 13.1).  Turbidity was within state standards for tidal waters on all sampling occasions  except for July 2003 at WC-MLR (Appendix B).  There were no algal blooms during this period; chlorophyll a concentrations were usually low (Table 13.1).  Nitrate concentrations were highest upstream at WC-NB, followed by WC-SB (Table 13.2), similar to previous years.  Ammonium levels were highest at WC-NB and WC-SB, and these levels were the highest among all of the tidal creek stations sampled.  Phosphate concentrations were highest in the middle of the creek at WC-MLR and WC-AB. Phosphate, ammonium and nitrate at WC-MB were highest among all creek mouth stations in the tidal creek system.  Fecal coliform bacteria counts exceeded the state human contact standard during 17% of sampling occasions at WC-MLR, 50% at WC-SB, and 75% at WC-NB.  Based on fecal coliform counts and Federal standards, in 2002-2003 shellfishing would likely have been unsafe at all stations except at the mouth, WC-MB (Table 13.3).  Whiskey Creek is presently closed to shellfishing by the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.

Table 13.1.  Water quality summary statistics for Whiskey Creek, August 2002-July 2003, as mean (st. dev.) / range.

                        Salinity            Dissolved oxygen     Turbidity               Chlor a         
                           (ppt)                (mg/L)                        (NTU)                  (mg/L)             
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WC-MB            29.0 (4.0)       7.4 (2.4)                       7 (4)                  2.7 (2.9)   
                          23.0-35.1       4.3-11.8                       2-13                  0.6-11.7    

WC-AB            25.2 (5.7)        7.5 (2.5)                      11 (6)                3.2 (3.5)   
                         18.3-34.2        4.5-12.2                       3-25                  0.5-13.5   

WC-MLR        20.4 (8.4)         7.5 (2.5)                       15 (9)                4.5 (5.4)
                        8.5-32.5           4.6-12.1                        5-33                  1.0-20.4 

WC-SB          0.2 (0.02          7.9 (1.3)                        9 (7)                  1.0 (0.9)
                        0.1-0.9             6.4-10.3                        3-28                  0.2-3.2 

WC-NB           0.2 (0.0)           7.8 (1.9)                      10 (4)                0.3 (0.2)
                        0.1-0.2              5.1-10.9                       5-17                 0.1-0.9
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Table 13.2.  Nutrient concentration summary statistics for Whiskey Creek, August 2002-July 2003,
as mean (st. dev.) / range, N/P ratio as mean / median.
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                        Nitrate                     Ammonium               Phosphate             Molar N/P ratio
                        (mg/L)                      (mg/L)                         (mg/L)
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WC-MB          0.028 (0.020)          0.049 (0.053)            0.008 (0.006)                  30
                        0.006-0.070            0.005-0.202               0.001-0.021                    23 

WC-AB          0.037 (0.028)                   NA                       0.009 (0.007)                  NA   
                        0.009-0.097                                                 0.001-0.027                  

WC-MLR        0.049 (0.029)           0.072 (0.080)            0.009 (0.005)                  59
                        0.011-0.088             0.012-0.308               0.001-0.019                    28 

WC-SB          0.089 (0.069)            0.106 (0.048)            0.002 (0.003)                  376
                        0.039-0.294              0.025-0.194              0.001-0.011                    392 

WC-NB          0.214 (0.062)            0.150 (0.053)            0.007 (0.006)                 367
                        0.156-0.372              0.088-0.289              0.001-0.018                   127
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Table 13.3 Fecal coliform concentrations in Whiskey Creek, 2002-2003.  Presented as
geometric mean and range, and percent of samples >43 CFU/100 mL.
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Station                WC-MB        WC-AB             WC-MLR           WC-SB                WC-NB

Geomean            8 (1-63)      47 (11-142)        82 (21-260)     134 (10-2000)       366 (4-3250) 
%> 43                  8%               58%                    75%                    58%                        83%
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