JONESBOROUGH — Water quality in the Nolichucky River remains better than that in many other rivers in the nation, according to a U.S. Geologic Service study.

Greg Johnson, a hydrologist with the USGS in Knoxville and one of the authors of the report, spoke Wednesday to a joint meeting of the Middle Nolichucky Watershed Alliance, which works mostly in Greene County, and the Nolichucky Watershed Alliance — Erwin Area, which works to improve the headwaters of the Nolichucky River.

The meeting was held in the conference room of the U.S. Department of Agriculture offices.

The study, titled “Water Quality in the Upper Tennessee River Basin,” covered Tennessee, but also parts of Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, and was started in 1994 and completed in 1998 as part of a larger National Water Quality Assessment Program that continues, Johnson said.

The study covered both surface water in rivers and streams, and groundwater, and the Nolichucky was only one of many rivers in the study.

Johnson said the study found “a big recovery in biologicals” in the Nolichucky, so much so that many species are regularly collected in the river and used “as seed stock” to replenish depleted populations in rivers that are worse off, such as the Pigeon.

Some of the study parameters could have been better, but were limited by the amount of funding available. He said the study chose to collect Asian clams as an indicator species in the rivers.

“That was a marginal call,” he said, and the study “would have been better looking at fish.

The “big issues” in surface water, Johnson said, were bacteria and sediments, with nutrients not as big a concern.

Three sites on the Nolichucky River were monitored extensively, at the Embryville Bridge in Unicoi County, Big Limestone Creek in Washington County, and Lowland in Hamblen County.

“Big Limestone was one of the intensive sites,” in terms of collections and monitoring, he said.

Tim Armstrong, chairman of the Middle Nolichucky Watershed Alliance, said the study sites left out “a big spread” including all of Greene County, and said it would have been very useful to have had data from above and below the Crockett Lake dam.

‘Limited Resources’

Johnson said “limited resources” were the reason, along with the need to “piggyback” on earlier TVA data collected at those sites, to allow historical comparisons.

Johnson said “a lot of urban streams failed bacteriological standards, as in Knoxville, where ‘aging infrastructure’ was blamed.

“The trend,” he said, is to see “fairly high bacteria in surface water” in many places.

Bacteria collections showed surface water “fairly clean upstream of Asheville,” he said, but high bacterial levels were noted downstream of the Western North Carolina city.

On the Nolichucky, “Big Limestone regularly had high bacteria levels,” he said, though they were low upstream at Embryville.

The presence of e. Coli, a bacterial species whose presence indicates fecal contamination, was relatively high at Big Limestone, though lower at Lowland, he said.

Asked the source of this fecal material, Johnson said that RNA tests can show whether it is from geese, cattle or humans, but the tests are “pricey,” and were not done for this study.

Two pesticides, Atrozine and Tebuthiron, were noted. “Atrozine was in 95 percent of the surface water tested” throughout the Tennessee River valley, Johnson said. Armstrong said that Atrozine is often sprayed on corn.

Tebuthiron was also found frequently, and in levels higher than those typically found nationally. Johnson said TVA sometimes uses this chemical around power lines and stations.

But he said pesticides were generally found at lower levels in the study than in other parts of the country. The two chemicals just mentioned were slightly higher, compared with the national study, but pesticides in general were lower.

Groundwater

In the groundwater study, Johnson found that the pesticides normally associated with tobacco cultivation were found less frequently and at lower levels in the study area than in other parts of the country.

But he noted, “I found bacteria in every spring I sampled,” though the amounts were “not necessarily harmful.”

He said he found many springs that were being used for public drinking water supplies, and speculated that people who have used these springs for decades probably have developed resistance to the bacteria in them.

Bacteria was more common in springs than in wells. Johnson said this is because contamination can get from the surface through a sinkhole and into a spring in a matter of days, or even hours, while getting into a well typically would take much longer, with more filtration involved.

The group also heard from Greg Upham, environmental program manager with the groundwater protection program of the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation in Nashville.

Upham spoke primarily on septic systems, which are used by about 30 percent of Tennesseans.

Regulation of septic systems is handled by state employees in 87 of the state’s 95 counties, but is done by county and city employees in many of the larger municipalities.

In both situations, septic systems are regulated by state laws.

But Upham said the state does not have enough manpower, even when fully staffed, which is not now the case, to do very much checking unless complaints are lodged.

“We react to failure” of a system, he said. “We’re not a policing force; we’re a responding force.”

Upham said many people considering a septic system might not realize that state law requires two areas on the lot that will support a septic system, rather than just one, and that driveways need to be routed so as not to disturb either area.

When a septic system fails, he said, and a property owner does not have a duplicate area in which to lay new field lines, then the state must sometimes go to Chancery Court and serve an eviction notice.

“It doesn’t happen very often,” Upham said, “but it has happened.”

Upham said the state has prepared and printed a folder that explains the basics of operating a septic system, and other general information. He said he would personally like to see a requirement that such a septic tank “owner’s manual” be distributed at real estate closings on every home that has a septic system. Right now there is no such requirement, and it is not uncommon for people to purchase a home with a septic system without even realizing it.