Red River Watershed Association

"Supporting the Red River Watershed

So It Can Support YOU!"

VSA Results

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Red River Watershed Association
P.O. Box 1185
Springfield, TN 37172

info@redriverwatershed.org

(615)384-5622

The Project

In October of 2003, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture’s Non-Point Source (NPS) Program contracted with the Red River Watershed Association to conduct a volunteer visual stream survey along 303(d)/305(b) listed streams in the watershed in order to identify specific sources of pollutants to these streams. The purpose of this assessment is to help the NPS program, other federal and state agencies, and other entities prioritize where to focus efforts to implement best management practices (BMPs) with the overall goal to improve the water quality of these stream segments. Thus, ultimately these segments could be removed from the 303(d)/305(b) list.

Volunteers surveyed and photographed 115 sites along various 303(d)/305(b) listed streams and some unassessed streams in the Tennessee portion of the Red River watershed. The quantitative component of the protocol involved scoring 8 characteristics for a possible total score of 42 for high quality habitat. Based on the total score for each site, 39 sites scored above 30. Forty-seven sites scored between 26 and 30; 20 between 21 and 25, and 9 sites between 16 and 20.

This visual stream assessment identified at least 86 sites that appear to be examples of conditions that represent sources of water quality degradation. However, volunteers did not collect water quality data such as physical/chemical measures or benthic macroinvertebrates. These 86 sites, listed in Table 12, represent sites with clear water quality related problems and priority opportunities for the implementation of BMPs. Riparian zone impacts appear to play a large part in water quality impairment, and bank instability was identified as an important source of sediment in the Red River watershed. Volunteers scored 34 sites as having severely impaired (< 10’) riparian zones and pictures confirmed that many sites had extremely limited to no riparian zone. Eighty sites were scored by volunteers as sub-optimal (unstable and moderately unstable) for bank stability.

The Results

Please note these instructions to get the most out of the RRWA Visual Stream Assessment Data

Click this link - http://gisweb.apsu.edu/website/rrwa/viewer.htm.

(This page will load in new page and will take a while. Be patient!)

Activate the RRWA Study Point layer by highlighting the “active” circle in green next to RRWA Study Points in the layer legend to the right hand side of the RRWA Map Viewer.
Click Refresh Map.
	Click the “I” or Identify button on the left hand side of the RRWA Map Viewer.
Place the cursor over one of the starred VSA site points.
	Individual site data will appear underneath the map and can be viewed in full by scrolling left and right.
To fully interpret the data header categories and rankings, go to the “Interpreting the VSA Data” link.

Click here for the full report!