Surface Water - Alabama Department of Environmental Management

Lower Black Warrior River (0316-0113)
Sub-Watershed: Dollarhide Creek NRCS Sub-Watershed Number 140
Landuse: The Dollarhide Creek sub-watershed drains approximately 86 mi 2 in Greene
County. Land cover within the sub-watershed was predominantly pasture land and forest.
A total of 2 NPDES permits have been issued in the sub-watershed (Appendix B).
Percent land cover estimated by local SWCD (Appendix A, ASWCC 1998)
Forest Row crop Pasture Mining Urban Open Water Other
34% 6% 40% 0% 10% 5% 5%
NPS impairment potential: There were moderate potentials for rural and urban NPS
impairment within the sub-watershed. Dollarhide Creek was given a 4 th priority subwatershed
rating by the local SWCD for resource concerns including erosion of roads and
agricultural land, nutrients in surface waters, overgrazed pastures, and livestock in streams
(Appendix I).
Ratings for each NPS category based on values estimated during the SWCD sub-watershed assessment.
Category
NPS
Score
Animal
husbandry
Aquaculture
Row
crop
Pasture Mining Forestry Sediment
Value 17 0.04 AU/ac 0.59% 6% 40% 0% 19% 4.3 tons/ac/yr
NPS Potential M L M M H L L L
Appendix D H H A A A I I
Assessments: Needham Creek was monitored at one site during the 2002 NPS screening
assessment of the BWC basin group (Appendix F). The location was previously assessed
during ADEM’s 1999 §303(d) Monitoring Program (Appendix E).
Assessment stations located within the sub-watershed. Descriptions are provided in Appendix E-1.
Station Assessment
Type
Date Location Area
(mi 2 )
Classification
NHC-2
Habitat,
Biological,
Chemical
1999,
2000
2002
Needham Cr. at US Hwy 43 7 F&W
Needham Creek: At NHC-2, Needham Creek was a small clay-bottomed stream located in
the Blackland Prairie (65a) subecoregion (Appendix J). Flow was reduced to relatively
large pools connected by very small bedrock and gravel riffles. Habitat was assessed as
fair due to eroded banks and poor instream habitat. Similar results were obtained during a
habitat assessment conducted in February of 2000 (Appendix P-1). Two EPT families
were collected, indicating the macroinvertebrate community to be in poor condition
(Appendix K). Conductivity and total dissolved solids were elevated during May of 2002
(Appendix M). Alkalinity and hardness values were also elevated.
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