3.3  Cape Fear River Subbasin 03-06-16
Includes the Cape Fear River, Harrison Creek and Turnbull Creek
Municipalities: City of Elizabethtown

LCFRP Station Codes (DWQ #):  BRN (66), HAM (67), NC11 (59)
DWQ/UNCW ambient monitoring site(s):  NC11
Waterbody:  Lower Cape Fear River
Location:  Within Bladen County, Browns and Hammonds Creeks are near Elizabethtown. 
NC11 is on the main stem of the Cape Fear River
Lat/Lon:  N  34.56853   W   78.55147 (BRN)  to 
                N  34.39663   W  78.26785 (NC11)

Use Support Ratings, from NCDENR, DWQ (2000 Basinwide Report): 
Fully Supporting:                   240.8 mi.
Partially Supporting:             0.0 mi.
Not Supporting:                     8.5 mi.
Not Rated:                              11.8 mi.

        The portion of the Cape Fear River within this subbasin is deep and slow moving.  There are several natural lakes and streams that are tannin-stained with low pH blackwaters.  Land use is mostly forest and marsh with some agriculture within the subbasin.  There are eight permitted dischargers, mostly near Elizabethtown.  Four of the largest dischargers, Veeder-Root, Smithfield Foods Incorporated in Tar Heel, Alamac Knit Fabrics in Elizabethtown, and Dupont of Fayetteville, discharge directly into the Cape Fear River.  (NCDENR, DWQ Cape Fear River Basinwide Water Quality Plan, July 2000)

        Portions of Turnbull Creek and Harrisons Creek were considered partially supporting (PS) in the 1996 Basinwide Plan.  Both are currently fully supporting (FS) and no longer on the state’s 303(d) list.  Browns Creek (8.5 miles from source to Cape Fear River) is non supporting (NS) according to recent DWQ monitoring because of an impaired biological community.  Urban nonpoint sources and sanitary sewer overflows from the City of Elizabethtown are possible sources of impairment.  This stream is on the state’s year 2000 303(d) list.  (NCDENR, DWQ Cape Fear River Basinwide Water Quality Plan, July 2000)

        Approximately 1% of the waters in this subbasin are impaired by nonpoint source pollution (mostly urban).  All of the waters in this subbasin are affected by nonpoint sources.  DENR, other state agencies and environmental groups have programs and initiatives underway to address water quality problems associated with nonpoint sources.  (NCDENR, DWQ Cape Fear River Basinwide Water Quality Plan, July 2000)

UNC-Wilmington – Center for Marine Science, LCFRP
Station Names:  BRN, HAM, NC11
Data collection:  NC11 since June 1995, BRN & HAM since February 1996
Sampling relevance:  NC11 represents water entering the Lower Cape Fear River watershed from the middle basin.  There are also several concentrated animal operations within the area.  

              NC11 - main stem of Cape Fear
              River, deep channel, relatively slow
              moving, freshwater yet tidally influenced

The sites at Browns Creek (BRN) and North Carolina Hwy 11 (NC11) were found to be fully supporting (FS) for dissolved oxygen, meeting the North Carolina State Standard of 5.0 mg/L in all sampled months.  Hammonds Creek, a small, channelized tributary, was found to be partially supporting (PS), with dissolved oxygen levels falling below
5.0 mg/L on three of the twelve sampled months (25% of time).  This creek was found to be fully supporting (FS), if reevaluated using the North Carolina State Standard for dissolved oxygen for swampwater of 4.0 mg/L.  Though it may not exhibit all of the typical characteristics for a swamp system, Hammonds Creek (HAM) does exhibit some blackwater stream characteristics.

All sites monitored by UNCW within this subbasin were found to be fully supporting (FS) for chlorophyll a concentrations.  The North Carolina State Standard for chlorophyll a of 40 mg/L was not exceeded at HAM, BRN, or NC11. 

Fecal coliform bacteria concentrations were generally low at both BRN and NC11, not exceeding the North Carolina State Standard for human contact of 200 CFU/100 mL.  Both BRN and NC11 were found to be fully supporting (FS) for fecal coliform bacteria concentrations.  Levels at Hammonds Creek (HAM) exceeded 200 CFU/100 mL in two of the sampled months.  HAM was rated partially supporting (PS) by UNCW for fecal coliform, with samples exceeding the standard 17 % of the time. 

Turbidity was not an issue for any of the sites monitored within this subbasin.  None of the sites exceeded the North Carolina State Standard of 50 NTU.  The mean for all the three sites for the 2001-2002 monitoring period was 9 NTU.