3.7  Cape Fear River Subbasin 03-06-20
Includes the Black River, Colly Creek and Moores Creek
Municipalities: Town of White Lake, Currie and Atkinson

 
LCFRP Station Codes (DWQ #):  COL (68), B210 (70), BBT
DWQ/UNCW ambient monitoring site(s):  none
Waterbody:  Creeks that drain into the Black River, draining swamp areas
Location:  Pender County, tributaries of the Black River, before confluence
with the Lower Cape Fear River
Lat/Lon:  N   34.46500    W   78.26553  (COL)  to
               N    34.35143    W    78.04927 (BBT)

Use Support Ratings, from NCDENR, DWQ (Cape Fear River Basinwide Water Quality Plan, July 2000): 
Freshwater Streams
Fully Supporting:                   142.5 mi.
Partially Supporting:             0.0 mi.
Not Supporting:                     0.0 mi.
Not Rated:                              35.7 mi.

        This subbasin is located in the coastal plain in Pender County.  The only permitted discharger within the subbasin is White Lake WWTP.  The characteristics of streams in this area are typically:  low geographic relief, low pH blackwaters, and a tendency for all but the largest rivers to stop flowing in the summer.  The Black River in this area has been classified as Outstanding Resource Waters (ORW).  (NCDENR, DWQ Cape Fear River Basinwide Water Quality Plan, July 2000) 

        Agriculture is the major land use, and nonpoint source pollution is a major problem throughout the subbasin, especially the tributaries.  Biological rating resulted in no streams being classified as impaired.  The water quality of this subbbasin appears to be generally good.  Due to the lack of flow in summer months, DWQ water quality monitoring assessments of tributaries were based on winter sampling.  (NCDENR, DWQ Basinwide Water Quality Plan, July 2000) 

UNC-Wilmington – Center for Marine Science, LCFRP
Station Names:  COL
Data collection:  February 1996 to present
Sampling relevance:  pristine swamp reference site  

 
         COL - blackwater stream, drains large swamp area 

   
      B210 - Black River, where Hwy 210 bridge passes over 

        All three sites within this subbasin were found to be fully supporting (FS) for each of the parameters measured by state standards.  For dissolved oxygen, BBT would be partially supporting (PS) if rated with the North Carolina State Standard of 5.0 mg/L (17 % of the time).  This area if affected by swampwater inputs and is found to be fully supporting (FS) if measured by the Swampwater Standard of 4.0 mg/L. 

        Chlorophyll a concentrations were also well within the North Carolina State Standard of 40 mg/L.  Levels of chlorophyll a were very low, with average concentrations of < 2.0 mg/L for the 2001-2002 monitoring period.

        Fecal coliform concentrations at COL and B210 were fully supporting (FS), below the North Carolina State Standard for human contact of 200 CFU/100 mL on all sampling occasions.  BBT was not measured by UNCW for fecal coliform bacteria concentrations.

        All three sites were also fully supporting (FS) for turbidity levels, not exceeding the North Carolina Freshwater State Standard of 50 NTU during our sampling period.