Introduction and Project Description
In March 2006, the Water Quality Group at NC State University was awarded a monitoring contract with the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund (2005A-900). The purpose of the contract is to establish an evaluation protocol to be conducted by the NCSU Water Quality Group on a subset of the CWMTF's stream restoration, stormwater and agricultural best management practices (BMP) projects. The program will include a field evaluation of 31 existing projects to provide a snapshot of project compliance and water quality benefits. Staff of the Water Quality Group was asked to prepare a rapid, yet effective evaluation of these projects. These evaluations were planned for a single project visit and to ultimately determine if these projects met their proposed goals. These projects include 18 stream restorations, 8 stormwater evaluations and 6 ag/BMP evaluations. The NCSU Water Quality Group will also conduct a more comprehensive monitoring program on a smaller subset of recently funded projects. The results will provide the CWMTF with a better understanding of the status and water quality benefits of these types of projects.

Stream Restoration

• Selection Criteria and Site Selection. The staff at the NCSU Water Quality Group suggested that stream restoration projects be given priority if these projects had natural channel design (channel pattern, profile and dimension were all modified) and were longer than 1000 linear feet. Ultimately 18 stream sites were selected by review of CWMTF files and discussions with project managers.
• Site Evaluation. An evaluation protocol for stream restoration projects was developed by the staff at the NCSU Water Quality Group (http://www.ncsu.edu/waterquality/). This protocol was field tested and subsequently sent to several agencies and individuals for external review. As part of this evaluation, numeric values are given to four categories: channel condition including bedform, dominant substrate material and cover, bank and riparian habitat, aquatic insect community structure and the condition and function of instream structures. Evaluation locations were variable due to stream size, land cover, ecoregion and the number of years following construction and therefore some inherent variability are expected in the data. Each evaluation was conducted by a team of 8 trained individuals; a bedform and structure team, a vegetation team, an insect and cover team and a rover team who was responsible for photographs and GPS locations. A photographic log of these projects can be seen at the following links below:

Project Names:

Please click here to download the Stream Restoration Evaluation Assessment Form, available as a PDF file.
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Stormwater

• Selection Criteria and Site Selection.  Stormwater sites were chosen based on several criteria.  Preference was given to sites that have been completed for at least one, if not several, growing seasons. Sites with little existing monitoring reports were also desirable. Sites were chosen in various locations throughout NC, but also to facilitate travel planning. Projects that incorporated multiple BMP’s were also chosen to acquire more data from a single visit. Our initial site selection list was modified after investigation of the project files and contact with the Grantees. Project managers were contacted by the CWMTF and NSCU prior to project evaluations.
• Site Evaluation.  An evaluation protocol for stormwater projects was developed by the staff at the NCSU Water Quality group.  As part of this evaluation number values are subjectively given to five categories: inlet conditions, structures, vegetation development, maintenance, and biological diversity.  Each category received a score between 0 and 5 and is weighted equally in the overall site score. The evaluations were conducted during the summer of 2006. Each site was visited and independently scored by a team of trained individuals. A photographic log was collected at each site. A total of 8 sites were planned for visits, and a total of 20 BMP’s were evaluated for the project.

Project Names

Ag Best Management Practices

• Selection Criteria and Site Selection. Staff of the NCSU Water Quality Group and the CWMTF reviewed all of the agricultural related BMP projects and selected six for the evaluations from the eight originally identified by the CWMTF staff. The selection criteria included whether the projects were agricultural-related and not either stormwater or stream restoration.
• Site Evaluation. Because agricultural BMPs have well-established design guidelines and specifications and too many BMPs were implemented on each project to evaluate each individually, the focus of evaluation of these projects is less on the individual BMPs, but more on the combinations of which ones and where they were implemented, along with how many were implemented for the resources expended. The combination of BMPs implemented and where they were implemented will be assessed with regard to what the stated water quality objective was. Some of the typical or most extensive BMPs will be visited to assess how well they were sited and are functioning. Photos were taken to document the site visits.

Project Names

For more information, please contact:

Dave Penrose
NCSU Water Quality Group
Campus Box 7637
Raleigh, NC 27695-7637
919-515-8244; Fax 919-515-7448
dave_penrose@ncsu.edu

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