Thursday, May 21, 2009 - 4:15 PM
619

Analysis of the effectiveness of an urban stormwater Best Management Practice on Weracoba Creek, Georgia, using the Rapid Bioassessment Protocol

Erik C. Oij and James A. Gore. Environmental Science, Policy and Geography, University of South Florida St. Petersburg, 140 7th Ave. S., St. Petersburg, FL 33701

An off-line stormwater treatment facility was placed adjacent to Weracoba Creek to control fecal coliform bacteria levels.  The BMP facility operates continually with pretreatment, a compressed media filter, and ultra-violet treatment for both wet- and dry-weather events.  Using the Rapid Bioassessment Protocol (RBP) with benthic macroinvertebrates as bioindicators of stream health, we compared sites upstream and downstream of the proposed BMP to a reference condition for that sub-ecoregion.    All samples were collected in consecutive “index periods” between September and March, 2006, 2007, and 2008.  Prior to stormwater treatment, benthic communities were dominated by the Cricotopus/Orthocladius complex, Physidae, and Planorbidae, all tolerant taxa.   Concurrent chemical analysis and coliform monitoring indicated a substantial improvement in the quality of water downstream of the BMP.  RBP analysis also indicated a measurable improvement in stream health at the two downstream sampling sites while there was no difference in metrics at the upstream site.  There was a shift in downstream benthic community composition, exemplified by a six-fold increase (or greater) in Hydropsyche sp..  Critical metrics (most notably, percentage of Trichoptera) indicated an improvement in the structure of the benthic community and a re-evaluation of stream health from “class B” to “class A” status.


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