Long-Term Water-Quality Changes in East Fork Poplar Creek, Tennessee: Background, Trends, and Potential Biological Consequences

• Published in: Environmental management (New York) 2011-06, Vol.47 (6), p.1021-1032
• Main Authors: Stewart, Arthur J., Smith, John G., Loar, James M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aquatic Organisms - drug effects; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Best management practices; Biological; Biomonitoring; Calcium - analysis; Chemical spills; Creeks; Creeks & streams; Dechlorination; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Effluents; Electric Conductivity; Environment; Environmental Management; Environmental Monitoring; ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Flow augmentation; Forestry Management; Geomorphology; Headwaters; Monitoring; Nature Conservation; Nitrates - analysis; PCB; Perturbation; Pollutants; pollution abatement; Pollution control; Polychlorinated biphenyls; Poplar; recovery; remedial actions; Rivers - chemistry; Sodium - analysis; Streams; Tennessee; Trends; United States; United States Government Agencies; Variables; Waste water; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis; Water Pollutants, Chemical - toxicity; Water pollution; Water Pollution Control; Water Pollution, Chemical - statistics & numerical data; Water quality; Water temperature; water-quality monitoring; Zinc - analysis
• ISSN: 0364-152X; 1432-1009
• DOI: 10.1007/s00267-011-9630-7

We review long-term changes that have occurred in factors affecting water quality in East Fork Poplar Creek (EFPC; in East Tennessee) over a nearly 25-year monitoring period. Historically, the stream has received wastewaters and pollutants from a major United States Department of Energy (DOE) facility on the headwaters of the stream. Early in the monitoring program, EFPC was perturbed chemically, especially within its headwaters; evidence of this perturbation extended downstream for many kilometers. The magnitude of this perturbation, and the concentrations of many biologically significant water-quality factors, has lessened substantially through time. The changes in water-quality factors resulted from a large number of operational changes and remedial actions implemented at the DOE facility. Chief among these were consolidation and elimination of many effluents, elimination of an unlined settling/flow equalization basin, reduction in amount of blow-down from cooling tower operations, dechlorination of effluents, and implementation of flow augmentation. Although many water-quality characteristics in upper EFPC have become more similar to those of reference streams, conditions remain far from pristine. Nutrient enrichment may be one of the more challenging problems remaining before further biological improvements occur.