Trouble with Hubble

Jackson city engineer Dan Triller has two pictures hanging on his office wall.

One is a photo of Jackson's Hubble Creek, with trees providing shade over the water and plants growing up all around.

The other shows a big concrete ditch running alongside Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau.

Triller, who doesn't want to deal with same type of flooding problems Cape Girardeau once had, doesn't want Picture A to turn into Picture B.

Meanwhile, other state and federal government officials don't see a pretty picture. When they look at Hubble, Williams, Goose, Foster and Randol creeks, they see erosion, filthy water and decreased fish populations more than they see flood control.

The problem causing, or at least contributing, to all these effects is simple enough: There is too much water getting into the creeks too quickly. And though much has been accomplished in recent years, government officials agree that there is some urgency in addressing the watershed within the next few years.

"We're kind of on a see-saw," said Stan Murray, the Hubble Creek watershed manager from the National Resource Conservation Service. "How things shape up and what comes about in the next few years will be very critical. If we're going to address problems, now is the time to do it or else you're going to be putting Band-Aids on it from here on out."

Triller agreed.

"The majority of Jackson is not experiencing flooding at this time," he said. "But if we don't control this watershed, we'll not only have flooding, but stream bank erosion. We're hitting the problem early enough where some of that stuff can be prevented."

Water solutions

The solution to the overall problem is complex and takes on many forms. The solution begins, officials say, with action from individual home and land owners (see related graphic) and ends with larger projects, like a possible large detention basin system.

At the current rate of growth in Jackson -- the city grew from 9,000 to 12,000 from 1990 to 2000 -- and to the north of Jackson, more revenue may eventually be needed to control the Hubble Creek watershed, Triller said. Currently, some flooding occurs to the south of Jackson, but that may not be the case as development continues in and outside of town.

More subdivisions mean more streets, more rooftops, more parking lots and less absorbent ground to soak up rain water. The water moves faster, washing down into gutters, street drains and, by design, quickly into the creeks.

The issue is important enough to draw at least some interest from no less than eight different government agencies that have some sort of say in the controlling the stormwater in the Hubble Creek watershed. All of them have slightly different agendas, but all want the same thing, which is less water.

In 1997, a local planning committee of nine community leaders involved and familiar with Hubble Creek, took on the task of identifying needs and solutions for the watershed. The committee, backed by six different governmental groups, came up with a framework for improvements that would cost $4.1 million.

The work would be funded 25 percent locally, 40 percent from the state and 35 percent from the federal government.

Since then, much has happened in regard to fixing current problems and addressing future ones, but there is still a lot to be done.

The National Resource Conservation Service has become responsible for two major projects since the committee was organized. One is a program driven by a $750,000, seven-year grant issued by the Department of Natural Resources. The NRCS works with local farmers, who must match 25 percent of the cost of each project, and gives them the tools to limit erosion and runoff, build ponds and help manage nutrients.

"The farmers in the watershed are doing a fantastic job and we're trying to find them the extra tools they need," Murray said.

The NRCS has also built an in-channel stabilization structure off County Road 228 on Mark Wessell's farm to help prevent Hubble Creek from eroding all the way back to a bridge over the creek. The $188,000 stabilization structure is basically rocks that have been cemented in place on the creek banks and wire baskets placed in the bottom of the creek engineered to slow down the creek's energy. The structure was placed where a small waterfall has formed due to the creek's attempt to lower itself to the same level as the Diversion Channel.

Murray will address the Cape Girardeau County Commission today about a much larger second structure, which could cost about $310,000.

Not as fishy

Brad Pobst, fisheries management biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation is particularly interested in the water quality of the creek, which has worsened over the years.

A study done in 1996 by conservation officials showed that of the original 22 species of fish that were found in a 1940 sample, only five remained 56 years later.

Furthermore, the conservation department has monitored water quality around the Diversion Channel since 1991. While several other streams that flow into the channel were healthy, Hubble Creek was an exception.

Pobst said the reason there are fewer fish is because of the high amount of soil in the water. Local officials estimate that 160 tons of soil disappears from the Hubble Creek watershed every year.

The development in Jackson and the county is a big reason for the erosion.

Pobst said the city of Jackson has taken important steps recently to reduce the problem.

The city established a stormwater ordinance, forcing developers to, among other things, pay a two-cents-per-square-foot fee for impervious surfaces. It has also forced developers to build detention basins for subdivisions or big business to hold and release water at a rate not any faster than it did before the development.

Triller said the city may need to do more in the future. The city is currently working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the feasibility of a detention system north of Jackson.

Deanne Strauser, civil engineer project manager, said the Corps worked with the NRCS to build a few small pond detention reservoirs for erosion control in the southern end of the watershed a few years ago. Those were built for soil conservation purposes, but now the Corps is working with Jackson to see if a series of similar reservoirs, built on a larger scale, might benefit the city for flood control as well.

The corps began its study last July and it is still very early in the process, Strauser said.

Strauser said she does not yet know if a detention system, whether it be a big one like Cape Girardeau's or a series of smaller reservoirs, will even be necessary.

"It depends on all the city's ordinances and how they regulate where people can build and not build," she said. "If they have some strong planning and zoning type things, it's not necessarily true they'll have more flooding."

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635

HELPING HUBBLE

Government officials say solving the Hubble Creek watershed stormwater problems is a package solution. It begins with involvement from homeowners. Here are a few suggestions of ways you can help:

Review your home for stormwater handling. If your gutters, downspouts, driveways, or decks directly discharge into a water body, retrofit it by redirecting the runoff onto grassy areas or installing berm/swale systems.

Design your landscaping to limit water use.

If you have an irrigation system, make sure it is in good working order and limit its use to actual watering needs.

Consider replacing impervious surfaces like sidewalks, decks, and driveways around your home with more pervious materials or methods like mulch, turf block, pervious concrete or clean stone.

Retain shrubby vegetation along waterfronts to prevent erosion and help stop heavy rain sheetflow.

Never dispose of oils, pesticides, or other chemicals onto driveways, roadways or storm drains. The next rain will either carry it into a surface water or help it soak into our drinking water.

Reduce the amount of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides you apply on your lawn and landscaping. What the plants can't absorb quickly usually results in surface or groundwater pollution.

SOURCE: www.lee-county.com/healthdept/stormwater.htm