Why was Buck Creek chosen for detailed study?

- Has agricultural, urban and sub-urban land use, which gives a good
representation of Delaware County
-Greater ability to affect water quality due to headwaters
-Listed with the IDEM as a waterway with impaired water quality (303d list)
-Buck Creek is a unique waterway in the County, due to potential as a cold water  trout stream

List of Local Citizen Issues and Concerns Regarding Water Quality For the Buck Creek Sub-Watershed

1.) Dumping – garbage and animal
2.) Sprawl – especially farm to housing
3.) Chemicals – lawn applications, salt, agricultural overspray, spraying of county ditches and creeks.
4.) Groundwater contamination
5.)  Drainage- Underground tiles.
6.)  Septics- Failing septic systems  from surface water flooding - From failing systems themselves
7.)  Conservation- Identify all the agricultural conservation practices in the watershed

Summary of the Buck Creek Water Quality Monitoring Findings:

Water quality sampling found that temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen levels were within state or scientific standards. However, all samples were higher than the guidelines for biological oxygen demand, total suspended solids, nitrate, orthophosphate, and E. coli, and ammonia was high during several sampling events. Atrazine and diazinon were within detectable limits at one point or another in this watershed during the sampling season. In spite of the pollutant load, stream habitat, macroinvertebrates, and fish indicators showed that Buck Creek is a high-quality biological ecosystem.

What does this mean?
The temperature, pH and DO levels of the stream, as well as a relatively intact riparian buffer and quality stream substrate, make portions of Buck Creek a good place for fish and other aquatic life to live. However, in order to maintain this relatively clean stream, we need to reduce sedimentation and E. coli in the stream.