Headwaters of Polecat Creek

Project Title Ground-Water Monitoring Component of the Polecat Creek Monitoring Project Number VA117 Cooperating Agencies Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Department Project Chief Gary Speiran Period of Project Continuing since 1997

Downstream part of Polecat Creek

Problem  
Elevated nutrients and suspended solids in the Chesapeake Bay adversely affect water clarity and dissolved oxygen levels, stressing living resources in the Bay and its tributaries.  In 1987, the Chesapeake Bay Agreement called for a 40% reduction in controllable nutrients entering the Bay by the year 2000.  In 2000, a renewed Chesapeake Bay agreement was created to reinforce and redefine efforts toward these nutrient reductions.  In an effort to reduce nutrients and sediments entering the Bay, management strategies have been implemented in tributary basins.  Evaluation of nutrient sources and transport are needed for assessing the success of these strategies in improving water quality and living resource response.  
     To evaluate the effectiveness of management strategies, Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Department began a long-term monitoring and assessment program in the Polecat Creek Watershed in 1993. Stream water quality and flow, biological communities, and land use were initially monitored. Because ground-water discharge contributes 50 to 80 percent of the annual flow to streams in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, ground water is an important pathway for the transport of nutrients to the streams. Consequently, a ground-water monitoring component was added to the Polecat Creek Monitoring Project in 1997.

Objective  
Assess the effectiveness of best management practices in controlling the transport of nutrients through ground water to streams in the Polecat Creek Watershed.

Relevance and Benefits
Results of this study will improve the understanding of factors affecting the transport of nutrients through shallow ground water to streams in similar Piedmont and Coastal Plain geohydrologic environments throughout the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. This understanding will help improve management strategies to control nutrient transport through ground water to streams in similar environments throughout the watershed.

Approach
Clusters of wells open to the surficial aquifer were installed along regional flow paths in agricultural and residential land uses.  Sediment obtained when the wells were installed is being used to evaluate the characteristics of the aquifers and confining units.  Ground-water quality and levels are monitored periodically.  Local studies are also being conducted to evaluate localized ground-water flow paths and hydrologic and chemical processes that affect nutrient transport and discharge to streams.  This information will be used to:  1)  develop geohydrologic frameworks for representative areas;  2) develop conceptual ground-water flow models for representative areas;  3) assess the effectiveness of best management practices; and 4) assess the effects of natural ground-water processes on nutrients in ground-water discharging to the streams.