A STUDY OF BUCK CREEK IN CARROLL COUNTY, GEORGIA: IMPORTANCE OF SMALL STREAMS DURING DROUGHTS

Buck Creek is a small stream that heads in the city of Bremen, flows south across northern rural Carroll County and into the Little Tallapoosa River. Treated sewage is discharged into a tributary of the stream in Bremen. During the drought of 1999-2001 Buck Creek had some interesting environmental and economic issues. In 2000 concentrated organic waste that was released by a plant in the area passed through a sewage treatment facility, lowered dissolved oxygen levels in Buck Creek and caused a fish kill. During the peak of the drought Buck Creek was dammed by sand bags, its water was pumped over a small stream divide and flowed to the city of Carrollton's drinking water intake on the Little Tallapoosa River. A section of Buck Creek, because of elevated fecal coliform bacteria levels, is on the list of Carroll County streams that are not meeting their designated uses. A proposed expansion of the campus of the University of West Georgia will enable the establishment of a Water Research Center that includes Buck Creek and the Little Tallapoosa River. The purpose of this research is to begin collection of water quality and flow data on Buck Creek near its mouth. The first six months of 2007 have produced another significant drought in Georgia. For the first six months of 2007 all of northwest Georgia has a rainfall deficient of 14-21 inches. The area averages 50 inches of rain per year with record low rainfall in 2007 during what are the normally wettest months of January - March.

To study the effect of the drought, turbidity, conductivity, flow, and water temperature were measured beginning in January 2007 in Buck Creek near Carrollton, Georgia. With only one major rain event in six months, turbidity ranges from 6.7 NTU to 90 NTU and specific conductivity ranges from 77 ƒÝS/cm to 103 ƒÝS/cm. Additional tests were performed in the lab to determine TSS, fecal coliform bacteria, total phosphorus, and nitrite-nitrate-N. Typical results are TSS of 0.8 mg/L, total phosphorus of 0.07 mg/L, and the nitrate-nitrite-N of 0.16 mg/L.