Tusculum College student Scott Howard on Thursday gave a presentation on pollution of Richland Creek.

Howard showed findings of a study conducted by himself and fellow student Amanda Davis to a meeting of the Middle Nolichucky Watershed Alliance.

Howard and Davis served as interns/volunteers with Greene County’s Soil Conservation Office. Davis did not attend Thursday’s meeting.

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) has labeled Richland Creek “the most severe in terms of recovery” of all waterways in Greene County, according to Paul Hayden, head of the Soil Conservation Office.

Part of the creek runs through and below the Greeneville downtown area.

As part of the project, Howard said, he and Davis looked for all sources of pollution, including “non-point source pollution” such as cattle in the creek, bank erosion, and lack of trees along stream banks.

Howard said he and Davis looked at how the bed of the 16.8-mile creek is holding up, and at runoff.

One of their conclusions: Richland Creek “has been poorly affected,” in part because “a lot of people are used to pouring things into it.”

Hayden on Friday said Richland Creek suffers from “general runoff from the city and farmland, (including) oil and gasoline” from parking lots that border the waterway.

Hayden noted that all stormwater in Greeneville drains into the creek system, including Richland Creek and Holly Creek, without first being treated.

For their study, Howard said the two interns divided Richland Creek into eight sections.
The creek forms underground near railroad tracks on Bohannon Avenue and runs under Greeneville High School. It appears above ground at the Big Spring behind the Greeneville-Greene County Library, runs through the University of Tennessee Research and Education Center at Greeneville, then empties into the Nolichucky River near Kinser Park.

It has 10,042 acres of watershed (15.7 square miles), Hayden said.

Howard said the two interns were unable to access the creek as it ran through private farmland.

MNWA member Dana Ball also noted that MNWA was expected to receive $1,000 from Greene County for the next fiscal year that begins July 1.