3.0 Use
Support by Subbasin in the
Lower Cape Fear River System
Michael
A. Mallin, Heather A. CoVan and James F. Merritt
Center for Marine Science
University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Wilmington, NC 28409
3.0
Use Support Comparison by Subbasins
Resources include the North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (NCDENR), Division of Water Quality (DWQ) Cape Fear River Basinwide Water Quality Plan, July 2000, and the research conducted by UNC-Wilmington, Center for Marine Science (CMS), Lower Cape Fear River Program (LCFRP) for July 2001 - June 2002
3.1
Introduction
The NC Division of Water Quality prepares a basinwide water quality plan for each of the seventeen major river basins in the state every five years. The basinwide approach is a nonregulatory watershed-based approach to restoring and protecting the quality of North Carolina’s surface waters. The first basinwide plan for the Cape Fear River was completed in 1996, and the 2000 report is the first of the five-year interval updates. The goals of the basinwide program are to:
- identify water quality problems and restore full use to impaired waters;
- identify and protect high value resource waters;
- protect unimpaired waters while allowing for reasonable economic growth;
- develop appropriate management strategies to protect and restore water quality;
- assure equitable distribution of waste assimilative capacity for dischargers; and
- improve public awareness and involvement in the management of the state’s surface waters.
(NCDENR, DWQ Cape Fear River Basinwide Water Quality Plan, July 2000)
The
NCDENR has divided the Cape Fear River Basin into three areas: an upper basin,
middle basin, and lower basin. The watershed is divided into 6 major hydrological areas by
the US Geological Survey (USGS). Each
of these hydrologic areas is further divided into subbasins by DWQ.
There are 24 subbasins within the Cape Fear River basin, each denoted by
6-digit numbers (03-06-01 to 03-06-24). (NCDENR,
DWQ Cape Fear River Basinwide Water Quality Plan, July 2000)
The
Division of Water Quality (DWQ) conducts an assessment and determines water
classification according to their best-intended uses.
Use support ratings are established such as fully supporting (FS) if
standard is exceeded in < 10% of measurements, partially supporting (PS) if
standard is exceeded in 11-25% of measurements, or non supporting (NS) if
standard is exceeded in > 25% of measurements. DWQ also utilizes other
criteria, such as the benthic community composition and fisheries populations.
(NCDENR, DWQ Cape Fear River Basinwide Water Quality Plan, July 2000)
Some
of the subbasins have waters that are on the state’s year 2000 303(d) list.
Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act (CWA) requires states to develop a
list of waters not meeting water quality standards or which have impaired uses.
Waters may be excluded from the list if existing control strategies for
point and nonpoint source pollution will achieve the standards or uses.
Listed waters must be prioritized, and a management stategy or total
maximum daily load (TMDL) must be developed for all listed waters. (NCDENR, DWQ
Cape Fear River Basinwide Water Quality Plan, July 2000)
The ambient data was taken by DWQ from September 1993 to August 1998 for the July 2000 Basinwide Report. The next data window will be from September 1998 to August 2003 and the basinwide plan will be published in 2005. (NCDENR, DWQ Cape Fear River Basinwide Water Quality Plan, July 2000)
For more information consult the NC Division of Water Quality Basinwide Planning Website: http://h2o.enr.state.nc.us/basinwide
The 35 stations monitored by UNC-Wilmington’s Center for Marine Science (CMS), for the Lower Cape Fear River Program (LCFRP) fall into the middle and lower basins designated by the NCDENR. The stations are located in the following subbasins, and by clicking on the subbasin number, a map and detailed description is available.
03-06-16
(middle) BRN, HAM,
NC11
03-06-17
(lower) LVC,
AC, DP, IC, NAV, HB, BRR, M61,
M54,
M42, M35, M23, M18, SPD
03-06-18
(middle) SR
03-06-19
(middle) LCO, GCO,
6RC
03-06-20
(middle) COL, B210,
BBT
03-06-21
(lower) N403
03-06-22
(lower) PB,
GS, SAR, LRC, ROC
03-06-23 (lower) ANC, BCRR, BC117, NCF117, NCF6
Each subbasin will be addressed separately; with a description and map
with the Lower Cape Fear River Program (LCFRP) stations designated, and
municipalities noted. This will be
followed by a summary of the information published by NCDENR and DWQ in the Cape
Fear River Basinwide Water Quality Plan, July 2000.
UNC-W results and comments for the 2001-2002 monitoring period will
follow, with graphical representation when chronic problems have been observed.
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