SWaMP (the Saugahatchee Watershed Management Plan) partnered with the Lee County Business Partners for Clean Water (LCBPFCW), the Alabama Clean Water Partnership (ALCWP) and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) in a Landscape and Lawn Professional Workshop on February 10th at the Moores Mill Golf Club in Auburn. The workshop was organized by Ellen Huckabay, the LCBPFCW coordinator, and Allison Jenkins, the ALCWP statewide coordinator, and funded by a 319 grant from ADEM to restore Moores Mill Creek, and contributions from the ADEM-funded SWaMP project. The venue and lunch were provided by the Moores Mill Golf Club.

     The target audience for this workshop consisted of all licensed applicators of fertilizer and lawn chemicals in Lee County. Eighteen landscapers and lawn care professionals, representing fourteen local landscape-lawn care businesses, attended the half-day workshop. The workshop touched on primary nonpoint source pollutants in local watersheds, pollutants potential water quality impacts of improper application of fertilizers and lawn chemicals, methods of sediment control from disturbed lands, storm water retention, and what the Lee County Business Partners for Clean Water is all about and how to become a certified member (click here to see full agenda).
     Eric Reutebuch, SWaMP Co-coordinator, gave a presentation titled Landscape and Stream Water Quality Connections in a Watershed. Eric started by defining a watershed, and the five local watersheds, the Saugahatchee, Chewacla, Uphapee, Halawakee and Little Uchee, that the cities of Auburn and Opelika occupy. He requested that the audience fill out a form identifying the watersheds that they work in. Land cover maps of the whole Saugahatchee Watershed for 1993 and 2001 showing the rapid changes in the upper headwaters of the five watersheds were presented. Changes consisted mainly of conversion of rural forest and pasturelands to a doubling of land area occupied by urban/suburban developments during the eight-year timeframe.
     Eric continued by identifying land-based pollutants, known as nonpoint source (NPS) pollutants, that flush into local streams during significant rainfall-runoff events. NPS categories include both urban and rural runoff containing nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen), sediment, pathogens, pesticides, herbicides, grease and oil. Eric pointed out the nutrients, particularly phosphorus, are the primary pollutants in Saugahatchee Creek, and sediments and pathogens are the primary pollutants in Chewacla Creek, according to the 2008 ADEM 303(d) List of Impaired Streams. He said that according to a 2001-02 study of the Saugahatchee Watershed (Bayne et al. 2004), the majority of nonpoint source phosphorus was coming from urban-suburban areas, which contributed about three times more NPS phosphorus than the rural, mostly forested lands, see figure below.

Click here to see entire presentation

Eric indicated that the excess nutrients flushing off of urban-suburban landscapes were a significant part of why a segment of the Saugahatchee is on the state’s list of polluted streams (an undesirable distinction for our local community). He said that these excess nutrients, primarily phosphorus, were causing accelerated eutrophication in the creek where it enters Yates Lake. This eutrophication is manifested by production of nuisance algae blooms that can appear as very green water or green/brown/black floating mats of algae, both of which can cause major problems with fishing, boating swimming and potable water treatment. Other NPS problems discussed included sediments, contaminants (including pathogens, motor oil, pesticides, herbicides, household chemicals), and excessive amounts of water from impervious surfaces (parking lots, roofs, etc.) flushing into local streams.
     Eric closed with defining the SWaMP project and its goals, the primary goal being to reduce the amount of NPS pollution, particularly phosphorus, from flushing into Saugahatchee Creek. He discussed SWaMP outreach efforts and several of SWaMP’s on-the-ground projects designed to intercept NPS pollution before it gets to the creek, including rain gardens, rain barrels, stream bank and stream channel restoration projects.
     The audience learned that some lawns don’t need any phosphorus, and that no-phosphorus fertilizers are locally available (Lowes donated a bag for us to demonstrate). In fact, on land with adequate phosphorus, adding additional phosphorus can actually be detrimental to your plants as well as to the creek. SWaMP hopes that attendees of the Landscape and Lawn Professional Workshop will promote judicious and proper application of phosphorus to urban/suburban landscapes, since these landscapes are contributing to the pollution load flushing into the creek. Look for the Lee County Business Partners for Clean Water logo at landscape businesses that have participated in the workshop and are committed to environmentally friendly landscape and lawn care practices. Future workshops are being planned to educate builders, developers and homeowners on the health of our local streams and how we all can be part of the solution.