Urban Influences on Stream Chemistry and Biology in the Big Brushy Creek Watershed, South Carolina

Abstract

Naturally high total dissolved solids and upstream agricultural runoff often mask the influence of urban land cover on stream chemistry and biology. We examined the influence of headwater urbanization on the water chemistry, microbiology, and fish communities of the Big Brushy Creek watershed, a 96 km 2 drainage basin in the piedmont of South Carolina, USA. Concentrations of most major anions and cations (especially nitrate, sulfate, chloride, sodium, potassium, and calcium) were highest in the urban headwaters and decreased downstream. Generally, the highest concentrations of suspended coliform bacteria occurred in the urban headwaters. In contrast, stream habitat quality and the abundance, species richness, and species diversity of fishes did not differ significantly between urban and rural sites. Discharge of wastewater treatment plant effluent at one rural location caused an increase in concentrations of many solutes and possibly the abundance of benthic algae. We hypothesize that atmospheric dry deposition and domestic animal wastes are important sources of stream solutes and of coliform bacteria, respectively, in the urban headwaters. The lack of significant differences in fish abundance and diversity between urban and rural sites may indicate that urban development in the Big Brushy Creek watershed has not yet degraded habitat conditions greatly for stream fishes. Alternatively, agriculture or other land uses may have degraded stream habitat quality throughout the watershed prior to urbanization.

Effect of urbanization on surface water chemistry in south-central Texas

“…Our data supports the findings of other authors who reported significantly higher nitrate or orthophosphate in effluent impacted streams (e.g. Hoare 1984; Lewis et al 2007;Wahl et al 1997;Wernick et al 1998). Permitted effluent discharge for three of our treatment plants were available and these ranged from 0.75 MGD at Turkey, 4 MGD at Still and 8 MGD at Carter.…”

“…Our nitrate concentrations in treated sewage effluent were similar to and our phosphate concentrations High flow=black circles and Low flow=white circles. Inset diagram depicts the observed (x-axis) and predicted (y-axis) orthophosphate using high and low flow as independent variables much higher (Table 4) than those reported by Lewis et al (2007). Our data supports the findings of other authors who reported significantly higher nitrate or orthophosphate in effluent impacted streams (e.g.…”

“…Increased concentrations of stream nitrogen and phosphorus are often reported in watersheds with increasing agricultural or urban land cover (Perkins et al 1998;Williams et al 2005;Lewis et al 2007;Stanley and Maxted 2008). Our study found that nitrate was only significantly higher in those urban watersheds where we sampled downstream of a WWTP independent of population density or percentage urbanization.…”

“…Bahar and Yamamuro 2008;Bhatt & McDowell 2007;Hoare 1984;Kaushal et al 2005;Lewis et al 2007;Wahl et al 1997;Wernick et al 1998;Williams et al 2005). Some of these studies examined indirect effects of urbanization such as road salting in humid temperate climates (e.g.…”

Influences of urban wastewaters on the stream water quality: a case study from Gumushane Province, Turkey

“…The majority of reported studies have been designed around specific questions such as the effects of urbanization on spring, stream, or ground-water quality, where sampling design is carefully developed to assess those features (Al-Kharabsheh 1999;Graniel et al 1999;Vidal and Melgar 2000;Jeong 2001;AlKharabsheh and Ta'any 2003;Khazaei et al 2004;Brilly et al 2006;Rose 2007;Peters 2009;Ma et al 2009;Aitkenhead-Peterson et al 2011). Point source pollution has traditionally been the target of most water-quality studies, not only because such investigations are usually easier to design and complete, but because point source contaminants have been the predominant issue in many parts of the world (Daniel et al 2002;Keraita et al 2003;Gobeil et al 2005;Schoonover et al 2005;Lewis et al 2007;Girija et al 2007;Hur et al 2007;Shiddamallayya and Pratima 2008;Suthar et al 2010;Maani-Messai et al 2010), as well as self-purification of the streams (Heidenwag et al 2001;Vagnetti et al 2003;Cukrov et al 2008;Wei et al 2009;Vaikasas and Dumbrauskas 2010).…”