Stekoa Creek: A Plan For Restoration

Buzz Williams
A wave of sprawl is moving into the upper flood plain of Stekoa Creek.

One of the best ways to assess the ecological health of a watershed is by looking at water quality. America’s waterways had become so polluted by the mid 1960s that environmental activists began calling for new laws to restore and protect the water quality in our rivers and streams. The National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and the Clean Water Act were products of this era of environmental activism. The Chattooga River was one of the only rivers in the southern Appalachian Mountains nominated in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The river was eligible for protection under the statute as a last vestige of primitive America, where wildness and good water quality still existed. The Clean Water Act provided a means to protect rivers like the Chattooga that remained in a relatively pristine condition, while providing guidelines for restoring polluted rivers to acceptable water quality.

Water quality has improved in many rivers under the protection of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and the Clean Water Act. Yet many problems remain on rivers and streams where adequate enactment of these protective statutes has never been applied. Now, again our rivers and streams are threatened by unbridled development. The results are being seen in sedimentation due to ground disturbing activities and road building, reduced stream buffer zones, and inadequate sewage treatment. Nowhere is this story made more visible than in the efforts to restore and protect Stekoa Creek, one of the most polluted tributaries to the Chattooga River.

In 1997 we published an article in the Chattooga Quarterly highlighting the pollution in Stekoa Creek, accompanied by an appeal for support to address the problem. Today, seven years later the pollution persists with little improvement. This year, as we redouble our efforts to restore and protect this valuable tributary to the Chattooga River, it is instructive to look at where we were then and what has happened since, beginning with a summation of Stekoa’s pollution problems and followed by an update and a new strategy for an aggressive program to clean up Stekoa Creek.

In 1974, that section of the Chattooga River below the confluence of Stekoa Creek and the main river was nearly excluded from designation as a Wild and Scenic River because of pollution from Stekoa Creek. Stekoa Creek is one of the largest tributaries to the Chattooga River, and flows predominantly through private land and the City of Clayton in Rabun County, Georgia. The creek was discovered to be so polluted from fecal coliform and sedimentation in 1970 that the team studying the Chattooga River to assess its eligibility under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act concluded that designation of the river below its confluence with Stekoa should be included only with an agreement with the City of Clayton that a sewage treatment plant would be constructed. Fecal coliform levels at that time were documented to be 20 times higher than normal. In 1975, one year after the Chattooga River was designated as a National Wild and Scenic River, the City of Clayton replaced its old settling ponds with a new sewage treatment

In 1981, water testing again revealed unabated pollution problems in Stekoa Creek. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) found acute difficulties with the Clayton sewage treatment plant. Further investigations found storm water infiltration into sewer pipes causing flow through the plant to be 5 times greater than its designed capacity of 160,000 gallons per day. The 50-year-old sewer lines were leaking so much storm water into the plant that after heavy rainfall raw sewage was overflowing the treatment plant and spilling directly into Stekoa Creek.

Again in 1993, the DNR threatened enforcement action against Clayton unless immediate action was undertaken to correct continuing permit violations at the Stekoa sewage treatment plant. Meanwhile, sediment escaping from development along the highway 441 corridor through Clayton and failing septic systems were adding even more pollution to Stekoa Creek.

In 1995 at the request of the Chattooga Conservancy, Georgia Law in the Public Interest investigated discharge monitoring reports from the sewage treatment facility in Clayton and revealed serious noncompliance with permitted levels for total suspended solids, biochemical oxygen demand and pH levels. At the same time, the report did acknowledge some improvements at the sewage treatment plant resulting from upgrades.

Finally, on June 2, 1995 the City of Clayton entered into a consent order with Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD) to install further upgrades on the sewage plant to boost its capacity from 160,000 to 800,000 gallons per day. In 1996, improvements were initiated at the Clayton sewage treatment plant, yet the storm water infiltration problem causing periodic sewage spills during periods of high rainfall continued. Meanwhile, in March of 1996 the Sierra Club won a landmark water quality case against the US Environmental Protection Agency. This ruling faulted the agency, which had failed in requiring the State of Georgia to comply with the federal Clean Water Act’s mandate to identify “impaired” waters in the state, and then devise a viable plan for restoring water quality to acceptable levels for the water’s designated use.

The City of Clayton has now completed sewage treatment plant improvements with some improvement in water quality. But recent heavy rains from a series of tropical storms have once again resulted in untreated sewage spilling into Stekoa Creek. To its credit, the City of Clayton (with pressure from DNR) has completed a “smoke test” of the aging sewage system, which should soon zero in on leaks. For fixing the problem that has been estimated to cost in excess of a million dollars, the EPD will allow a further expansion of the sewage treatment plant to serve the burgeoning demand for service to increased development along the highway 441 corridor paralleling Stekoa Creek. The question of finding the money for sewage line upgrades looms large in the prospect of staying ahead of the growing demands on Stekoa Creek as the primary recipient of Clayton’s sewage effluent.

Positive movement on the fecal coliform problem via sewage plant improvements and upgrades recently have been offset by a shocking escalation of sprawl along Stekoa Creek and highway 441 that has resulted in a massive increase of sedimentation in Stekoa Creek. Developers taking advantage of loop holes in erosion and sedimentation laws are filling Stekoa’s flood plain for a car dealership, and a host of other land disturbing projects along highway 441, including a Wal-Mart (already in operation), and a Home Depot. The resulting runoff from these huge ground-disturbing activities is only compounding sediment problems in Stekoa Creek. The impervious surfaces of acres of new parking facilities could also add a significant volume of petroleum-based pollutants to Stekoa Creek.

Other, worsening pollution problems on Stekoa Creek revolve around the failure of the Georgia DNR to adequately screen requests by developers to invade stream buffer zones. Unfortunately, the DNR has granted numerous variances that waive stream protection zones and allow land disturbing activities up to the water’s edge, causing a further decline in water quality. Development friendly state officials have also navigated around the Clean Water Act ruling that mandated restoration of Stekoa Creek’s water quality, by crafting a wildly insufficient clean up plan that is void of any meaningful mechanisms to improve the creek.

Efforts to clean up Stekoa Creek are a now-or-never proposition, given the intense development and infrastructure related pressure building in Rabun County. This stark reality has prompted the Chattooga Conservancy to initiate a new campaign to protect and restore Stekoa Creek. First, we have started a stream sampling program to find point sources of pollution in Stekoa Creek. Water samples will be analyzed at the University of Georgia’s environmental water laboratory and test for excessive levels of fecal coliform and sediment. We are working with the Georgia DNR to tighten up on needless variances to stream buffer zones. We are also asking the Rabun county officials to enforce existing floodplain ordinances to prevent more filling of Stekoa Creek’s floodplain along highway 441. We are involved with the 10-year comprehensive planning process for Rabun County, advocating for provisions for streamside protections and orderly development. Finally, we are partnering with citizens and landowners in an effort to establish a greenway along Stekoa Creek. This greenway could provide for adequate buffering against sedimentation in the creek, restore its native riparian vegetation, set the stage for major improvements in water quality, and create an attractive environment and recreational corridor for the community to use. We have secured support for the Stekoa Greenway Project from both Rabun County and the City of Clayton. We are also working with local businesses to promote the greenway for revitalization of the downtown Clayton business district.

This strategic plan for the monumental task of cleaning up Stekoa Creek will depend on citizen support and involvement at every phase. The Chattooga Quarterly’s 1997 article about the status of Stekoa Creek concluded that “time is running out ….” Today, the time is up. With your help, Stekoa can be cleaned up, once and for all. If you would like to participate, call the Georgia EPD at 888-373-5947 and ask them to stop issuing variances in stream buffer zones on Stekoa Creek and start working to improve its water quality. Also check here.