The Cedar Creek watershed encompasses nearly 175,000 acres in Northeast Indiana, spanning three counties and creating a unique and diverse ecosystem. Now, a plan to improve the quality of the watershed, put forth by the City of Fort Wayne Utilities is awaiting approval from the state.
Cedar Creek runs for 32 miles from Auburn down to Leo, but the watershed expands out through Allen, Noble and Dekalb Counties. It supports aquatic life, recreation and provides drinking water. But, for years, the water quality has been dropping.
Two years ago, Fort Wayne City Utilities received a grant from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s (IDEM) Clean Water Act to create a management plan for the watershed, in the hopes of improving water quality.
Hannah Allen is a program manager for Fort Wayne City Utilities. She said the city was very interested in the plan, because of the effect to drinking water.
“Because, not only does it affect the City of Fort Wayne, but all the surrounding watersheds, they’re not confined to only their specific watershed boundaries," Allen said. "They affect all of the watersheds downstream. So, it’s really important to look at it as a whole and not just the specific area that you’re in.”
Cedar Creek is the largest watershed feeding into the St. Joseph River, which serves as the water supply for 300,000 people in Fort Wayne. It flows into the Maumee River, and ultimately into Lake Erie.
Researchers spent the past two and a half years collecting samples biweekly at 12 sites along the watershed and testing for four main impairments; PCBs in fish, biologic integrity, nutrients and E. coli.
PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, are a group of synthetic organic chemicals that were banned from production in the U.S. in 1979, but are still widely common in the environment due to their persistence and widespread use.
Sampling found a large amount of suspended solids, or waterborne particles, in all of the sites.
Kyle Quandt is with Quandt Consulting and acted as key researcher for the project.
“That is going to impact aquatic life, because we’re gonna smother fish nests," she said. "That’s gonna impact the mussel population because mussels rely on host fish for reproduction."
Five sites were found to be over the target level for E. coli and all of the sites require reductions in phosphorus, nitrate and nitrite.
In 2005, a similar watershed management plan was proposed and approved by the state. It showed problem areas in the water quality and offered solutions, but the goals of that plan were never met.
“And, so, why?" Quandt asked. "Why do we have more impairments? What didn’t we get right in that first one? Or has land use changed so much since then that we have different influences on the water quality now?”
Quandt said the goal of this research was to answer those questions and they found that it was a little bit of all of it. So, now, the goal is figuring out how to address that.
David Van Gilder has lived on the creek for nearly 30 years and said there was an issue with implementing the proposed solutions in the plan that was created 20 years ago.
"You can identify a problem, you can list solutions, but unless you actually do the things, you’re not protecting the water," he said.
Van Gilder said part of the problem with water quality solutions are that they require cooperation and coordination between public, private and community entities to make the solutions work.
“There really hasn’t been cooperation and coordination, everybody seems pitted against each other," he said.
Van Gilder described a lawsuit he was involved about 15 years ago where a former county surveyor marked 350 trees along Willow Creek, the immediate drainage into Cedar Creek. The plan was to take down 75 feet of mature trees on either side of the creek.
“If you’ve got the surveyor of the county who’s in charge of drainage and should be looking at the water quality issues, deciding to do the opposite, that’s a problem,” he said.
So, how do you avoid the pitfalls of that management plan this time?
The newly proposed plan includes several five-year goals to reduce contaminants in the water.
It looks to be proactive by beginning within the next six months, first with hiring a watershed coordinator and then by taking action in both the urban and agricultural areas inside the watershed.
A large part of that proposed five-year plan includes education and outreach, to better help people understand the impact they have on the watershed.
“We’re not gonna be able to affect change unless people understand why change needs to happen," Quandt said.
She said a lot of people don’t realize the things they do on their property can affect the entire watershed. And, she said, that outreach includes not just the general community, but decision makers in cities and counties Cedar Creek flows through.
“Letting them know what this investigation found, which was significant reductions in sediment, nutrients and E. Coli need to happen in order to improve the outcomes of the Cedar Creek," Quandt said.
Fort Wayne City Utilities is also part of implementing that education, and has already been working to help people better understand water quality issues and what they can do in their own backyard to help.
The city has a program called Catching Rain, where people can learn how to build a rain garden, implement green landscaping and reduce pollution on their properties. They’ve also offered several workshops to teach how to build a rain barrel.
Rain barrels capture water runoff from a roof and contain it for later use on lawns, gardens or indoor plants. Collecting and reusing it reduces the amount of water runoff into the watershed.
Quandt currently has two 50-gallon barrels on her property and collects 100 gallons of water each time it rains, for about nine months of the year, because it can’t be collected in the winter.
“So, I’m just one person, right?" She said. "So let’s say I’m collecting 1000 gallons. You get a hundred people, you’re collecting 100,000 gallons. So, it can have this huge impact and people don’t realize that.”
Quandt said she’s seen a lot of excitement about doing things to improve the water once people realize the impact they can have together, and she also gets to learn new things from them.
Allen said it's important to have projects like this that offer a bit of optimism in the environmental sphere, because it can seem like a huge obstacle to tackle.
“When you’re able to instil that hope again, it gets people moving again and making those changes where really big changes start to happen when you do start to educate people like that," she said.
The plan was presented to the community at a meeting at ACRES Land Trust at the beginning of August. Van Gilder commended the turnout for the meeting.
“I feel like there’s new enthusiasm to really get it right this time," he said.
Van Gilder is also the president of Friends of Cedar Creek, which he described as an informal HOA for residents who live on the creek to learn about it.
Friends of Cedar Creek is planning an information session with ACRES Land Trust for October to invite new members and new neighbors to teach them about where they live and what makes it important.
“So, we have to do even a more robust job of getting the word out to new residents and even people who’ve lived there for a while," Van Gilder said. "Friends of Cedar Creek has a membership list of a few hundred that we’re trying to expand, especially as new people move out there.”
Quandt is also the board president of the Northeast Indiana Water Trails. Later this month, they’re hosting an event on Cedar Creek, inviting people to dip for fish and insects to see what’s in the water and then a 6-mile paddle to where Cedar Creek joins the St. Joseph River.
Van Gilder urges those who live on or near the watershed to start thinking about the water more deeply.
“I think it’s sort of an all-hands situation," he said. "If you’re listening to this and you find yourself in the Cedar Creek watershed or even close to it, this a perfect time to get involved. Start educating yourself about where you live and how you can contribute to its betterment.”
The management plan will have a final review from IDEM at the end of September and will then need final approval from the EPA before implementation can begin.
