INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF THE HEADWATERS OF AN IMPAIRED URBAN WATERSHED

Threemile Creek flows for more than 12 miles through the City of Mobile, Alabama, ultimately discharging into the Mobile River, just north of Mobile Bay. It is a textbook example of an urbanized waterway, flowing through a various geological units, land uses, and communities of varying socioeconomic status. Downstream portions of Threemile Creek are beset by a variety of environmental impacts, including contaminated stormwater runoff and base flow, flooding, erosion, siltation, thermal pollution, and even treated sewage discharges. Not surprisingly, Threemile Creek is listed as a 303(d) impaired stream. The University of South Alabama (USA) lies in the relatively undeveloped headwaters of Threemile Creek, with a portion of the creek cutting across the northernmost third of the USA campus. As such, the creek offers a readymade laboratory for the study of hydrology. Physical, chemical, geological, and biological data have been collected in the area for several years by graduate and undergraduate hydrology classes. These data have been used to teach a number of “real world” lessons in land management, urban planning, and low-impact design/development, and are now finding potential use in a large-scale watershed planning initiative for Threemile Creek.