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"Let's go down to the river and pray...
studyin' about that good old way..."
So goes the song from the movie "O, Brother, Where Art Thou." In the movie the song is accompanied by a baptismal dunking that could have been filmed on the Little Kentucky River.
Of course, had the directors of the movie chosen our stream, they would have had to carefully choose the time of year for filming. Early in the spring the Little Kentuck might have swept the movie stars into the Ohio; summer might require a search for a pool deep enough for total immersion. And there's some recent data that a dunking during a dry spell could have made George Clooney and his pals downright sick.
The Commonwealth of Kentucky, like all states, must report the condition of its streams to the U S Congress every other year; it's the duty of the KY Division of Water (DOW) to make this report. The report identifies whether state streams fully support "designated uses," which are based on federal guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency. There are four designated uses: (1) drinking water, (2) fish consumption, (3) swimming and (4) aquatic life.
If a stream fully supports all uses (based on available data,) it is shown in green on the maps that accompany the DOW report. Streams that partially support designated uses are shown in yellow, and those not supporting designated uses appear in red. On the current KY Division of Water maps, the Little Kentucky is shown in green.
Development stresses a stream. Historically, "green" streams have turned "yellow" or "red" on designated use maps as the area surrounding them is expected to support more industry, subdivisions, and people. Floyd's Fork, a neighboring stream that stretches from Jefferson County through Oldham into Henry is a "red" stream with lots of problems. The Little Kentucky River Watershed District is attempting to head off this trend by trying to understand the "state of the watershed" now and by joining forces with local Watershed Watch (WW) volunteers to monitor any changes. While doing so, it's met with and received information and encouragement from the DOW and other state agencies.
Drinking Water
The Little Kentucky River is not used as a source for drinking water but is drinkable with conventional treatment. So its water, as well as water from most of the streams in the state, qualifies for fully supporting this designated use.
Fish Consumption
The state's criteria for reporting the designated use of fish consumption is more stream specific. A stream is considered fully supporting fish consumption if no fish advisories or bans are in effect for that stream. Although the Little Kentucky has been a part of at least one statewide fish consumption advisory, we are not aware of any ban or advisory specific solely to its water.
Swimming
A stream is considered to fully support the designated use of swimming if its pH is between 6.0 and 9.0 and its fecal coliform (bacteria from human or animal waste) reading is below 400 colonies per milliliter. A pH below 6.0 is regarded as too acidic for swimming and one over 9.0 too basic. Watershed Watch has field tested over 100 samples for pH and all of these samples have fallen within that range.
Of the over thirty samples taken by Watershed Watch and tested by an independent laboratory for fecal coliform, 24% exceeded the 400 colonies per milliliter limit. This percentage exceeds the 20% maximum that the state uses as an upper limit for being fully supporting for the designated use of swimming. Even though all of the excessive readings resulted from samplings during a very dry late summer period, WW feels that more testing is necessary to agree that the stream is fully supporting for this use.
Aquatic Life
Both water chemistry and biological criteria are used to determine whether a stream is fully supporting as a warmwater aquatic habitat (WAH) with the biological data being more important to the ranking than the chemical data. The water chemistry parameters consist of pH (which has been discussed), dissolved oxygen, temperature and un-ionized ammonia.
Dissolved oxygen must have an average of at least 5.0 milligrams per liter with no instantaneous readings of less than 4.0 mg/l. The lowest value for a sample tested by Watershed Watch over the past five years has been 4.6 mg/l with no other reading below 5.0 mg/l. The temperature criteria states that no temperature should be greater than 89 degrees Fahrenheit; no Watershed Watch samples have exceeded this limit. Only the lack of data for un-ionized ammonia prevents declaring the Little Kentucky as fully supporting as a warmwater habitat on a water chemistry basis.
The biological parameters for full support as a warmwater aquatic habitat are (1) algae, (2) macroinvertebrates and (3) fish. Like un-ionized ammonia data, there is not enough algae data to predict full support as a warmwater aquatic habitat. However, the Little Kentucky scores well as a WAH with regards to macroinvertebrates. At least once a year Watershed Watch collects samples of macroinvertebrates (bugs available for fish to eat.) WW uses a scoring system to show the diversity of bugs; the higher the score the healthier the waterway. A score of 0-11 is poor, 11-16 is fair, 16-22 is good and 22-30 is excellent. The average score over the last five years has been 21.3 which is pretty good news.
The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife judges the state's streams for species of fish present and periodically surveys Kentucky's fishable waters. In 1991 it studied the Little Kentucky River and some of its tributaries. At that time it rated fishing in the river fair to good. The mid-summer survey found four species of game fish (bass), five species of pan fish, five species of commercial fish and fifteen species of forage fish. Twenty four percent of the total were of harvestable size. Currently the Department of Fish and Wildlife describes the Little Kentucky River as "excellent" on the portion of its web site (http://www.kdfwr.state.ky.us/smallmth.htm) devoted to smallmouth bass fishing. The Little Kentucky is the only stream listed by the Department of Fish & Wildlife in the trout stream index for the Salt River Basin; 1000 trout of harvestable size are released each spring below Sulphur Dam.
Sediment.
WW volunteers have concerns about sediment in the water. This has especially been the case at site 115 below the Valley View landfill, where visibility in the water (measured with a meter stick) has, on several occasions, been lower than at the site above the landfill over the past couple of years. The volunteers have shared their observations with the Divisions of Water and Waste Management, as well as with solid waste officials in Trimble County.
The Kentucky Division of Water regards the Little Kentucky River as fully supporting all designated uses and therefore colors it "green." Watershed Watch, with eyes on the stream throughout the season, knows that it may not be so simple and clear cut (see Watershed Watch article.) And, many "old-timers" remind us that the river has "really gone down" over the years.
We are learning that studying a stream is a big job; determining the health of The Little Kentucky depends on who you talk to and their points of view at a particular time. Information relevant to the Little Kentucky is complex and scattered throughout many agencies. We know one thing: over time, things can get a lot worse if you don't "watch" out. We intend to continue our studies and research to establish a solid, reliable "baseline" of information, which future data can be compared to.
In the meantime, if you want to get baptized in the Little Kentuck. . . call us and we'll test it for you!
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