Lower East Fork Ohio EPA 319 Project Comes to a Close

The Clermont Soil and Water Conservation District and the East Fork Watershed Collaborative’s $335,000 Section 319(h) Nonpoint Source Program Implementation Grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has come to a close. 

The overall purpose of the project was to improve water quality in several major tributaries to the Lower East Fork Little Miami River, in an effort to fully attain their Warm Water Habitat (WWF) status.  More specifically, the project had the following goals.

• To address habitat alteration and hydro-modification in a primary headwater stream (Avey’s Run)

• Perform a detailed assessment of physical and biological stream/riparian conditions in Hall Run and Shayler Run subwatersheds

• To reduce the number of failing Household Sewage Treatment Systems (with associated nutrient and pathogen loadings) in the Hall Run and Wolfpen Run subwatersheds,

Project Highlights

Four home sewage treatment system (HSTS) workshops have been held in Hall Run and Wolfpen Run watershed.  Owners of HSTS were given information on proper operation and maintenance, as well as information on how to apply for low interest loans for system replacement. As a result of these workshops and the overall project over one hundred  HSTS owners have enrolled in the Clermont Health District’s Basic System Assessment (BSA) inspection program, which will result in improved performance of these systems.
 
Ten (10) failing Household Sewage Treatment Systems have been replaced in the watershed through a grant cost share program in partnership with the Clermont General Health District.  This eliminates pollutants from failing on-site systems (excess nutrients, organic waste) from entering local streams in the Lower East Fork.

Last spring the Conservation District and East Fork Watershed Collaborative contracted the Environmental Team at Ohio University’s Voinovich Center for Leadership and Public Affairs to conduct a detailed geomorphologic assessment of Hall and Shayler Run’s.  The goals of the assessment were to characterize the geomorphology of Hall and Shayler Run’s and to identify potential stream enhancement/restoration opportunities. 

Two Natural Design Workshops have been hosted by Clermont SWCD and the East Fork Watershed Collaborative.  Both of these workshops focused on principles of stream management.  The workshops were targeted at streamside landowners, developers, engineers, environmental consultants, and planning and zoning officials.

Workshop topics included:

• an introduction to how streams work (i.e., natural channel principles)
• an overview of benefits and services provided by streams and stream corridors
• a discussion of stream management issues and options
• tools and actions available to help us accomplish our stream management goals (i.e., manage stormwater,   minimize flooding, protect property and infrastructure, protect water quality, maintain stream habitat, ...)

The biggest highlight of the Lower East Fork 319 has been the implementation of the Avey’s Run Stream Enhancement Project.  The East Branch of Avey’s Run is currently experiencing bank erosion due to channelization, downcutting, and widening.  The sediment released from the erosion of the banks and stream bed contributes to downstream siltation, as well as harmful increases in nutrients in the water. In order to reduce erosion and downstream siltation, and thus improve water quality, natural channel design techniques have been used so the channel can return to a stable, self-maintaining form that can transport its flow and sediment discharge without eroding or aggrading.

By relocating the stream some 600 feet to its original floodplain, we reconnected the stream with its floodplain.  This will allow floodwaters to spread out, slowing water flow and thus reducing bank and bed erosion.

The eroding banks along the downstream 1000 feet of the stream have been stabilized, and the channel elevation has been raised by excavated pools and the building up of riffles by installing log and/or rock cross vanes.  This will prevent future downcutting and (by raising the channel) allow floodwaters to access to the floodplain where waters can settle out their sediments rather than flushing them downstream.  While log vanes and rock cross vanes are used to stabilize outside meander bends, they have added benefits of habitat creation.  They create calmer pools that provide the necessary depth for fish and other aquatic animals to thrive, and they provide cover over those deep pools.  They also provide surfaces for macroinvertebrates and other insects to thrive.

The construction phase of this project has been completed with 1800 feet of stream function restored.  On September 13, 2007 Clermont SWCD hosted a field day and site visit to talk about the project and natural channel design techniques.  Forty participants attended including local landowners, local engineers, Cincinnati Nature Center staff and volunteers, representatives from the Clermont County Office of Environmental Quality and Stormwater Department and local NRCS staff. 

The next phase of the project was the re-vegetation of the project area.  Nearly two acres of invasive species have been removed from the riparian and floodplain area adjacent to the project.  The stumps of these invasive species have been treated with a chemical application.  During October 2007 over 300 native trees and shrubs were planted along the project site.  The streambanks and adjacent riparian and floodplain areas were heavily seeded with native herbaceous species.

Clermont SWCD and the East Fork Watershed Collaborative would like to give a special thanks to the Ohio EPA for sponsoring this project with 319 Grant funding and the Cincinnati Nature Center for allowing us to access their property.  This project would not have been possible without the support of these organizations as well as the many other organizations and individuals that helped make this project a success.  Thank you all!

For further details about the Lower East Fork 319 project contact Jason K. Brown, East Fork Watershed Coordinator, at (513) 732-7075.