Southeast Advocacy: Lockwood Folly River

Shrimp trawlers lay at anchor in the Lockwood Folly River in Brunswick County.

People who live along the Lockwoods Folly River in Brunswick County have donned boots and gloves, have picked up shovels and have taken the first steps to make the river right again.

Residents from the Winding River and River Run subdivisions late last year teamed with the N.C. Coastal Federation and the Brunswick County Soil and Water Conservation District to build community rain gardens and other types of natural areas to capture runoff from neighborhood marinas and boat ramps before it enters adjacent river. Thirty-five volunteers contributed over 200 hours to complete the projects, demonstrating that getting a little muddy can be great fun and could make a big difference in keeping our waters clean.

Fixing the Lockwoods Folly River will probably require hundreds of those type of small-scale, low-cost projects strategically placed in backyards, common areas and commercial settings. A study done by the federation, Brunswick County and state and federal agencies found  that more than 55 percent of the river is now closed permanently or temporarily to shellfishing because of high bacteria levels. That’s a three-fold increase since 1980. Polluted runoff is the culprit, according to our study. It found that bacteria entering the river with each rain must be reduced as much as 84 percent if the river is to once again meet state water standards for shellfishing.

Keeping as much rain as possible on the land where it falls is the secret to protecting and restoring water quality in the river. That’s the conclusion of a plan to restore polluted shellfish beds in the Lockwoods Folly River. After studying the pollution problems in the river for two years, the federation again joined with Brunswick County to devise a restoration plan, which was released in December.

The plan advocates using simple, inexpensive methods, like rain garden or cisterns to capture stormwater, spread throughout the watershed. Rain gardens, for instance, are shallow, concave landscaped areas that soak up rain, attract wildlife and can be landscaping amenities. Installing a simple, small rain garden in a backyard to capture runoff can have significant benefits. So could cisterns and rain barrels. Connecting downspouts to a container can slow the flow of runoff. Using that water later during dry weather can also save money. Forty percent of the water used by the average household in the summer is for watering lawns and gardens.

• Lockwoods Folly study report
• Restoration plan summary: Solutions for Pollution
• Entire restoration plan
• Federation press release
• Facebook photo gallery

A River of Concern

Brunswick County isn’t a hidden treasure anymore. Since 1980 the county’s population has tripled to more than 93,000, and another 35,000 residents are expected to arrive by 2020. The tremendous influx of people has made Brunswick the 14th fastest growing county in the nation. Residents have become concerned that widespread growth could quickly harm the Lockwood Folly River and its associated estuarine systems if business as usual continued.

Worried about the river’s health and the continued viability of the local fishing industry as development pressures increase, the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners three years ago teamed up with the federation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Ecosystem Enhancement Program to establish the Lockwood Folly Watershed Roundtable. The eight-member group, which included participants from a range of backgrounds, was tasked with developing strategies that would balance development with the needs of the environment.

The final strategies include recommendations such as use of low-impact development techniques by developers, retrofits of existing stormwater problems to reduce pollutant discharge, and the acquisition of strategic properties from willing sellers.

In the summer of 2007, the Brunswick County commissioners appointed an implementation committee to ensure continued forward momentum with the Lockwood Folly strategies. The federation continues to work with the county toward implementation of these critical strategies.

Grant Awarded

The N. C. Division of Water Quality in 2007 gave the federation a $309,000 grant to determine bacteria loading in the river. The grant, which ran through 2010, involved water quality testing for fecal colifom bacteria and total suspended solids. The project was coordinated by our Mike Giles, Southeast coastal advocate, and trained volunteers took most of the water tests under Mike’s supervision.

The water sampling, which began in November 2007, was completed by a team of 15 volunteers that Mike nicknamed the “Lockwood Army.” They did the bulk of the field work by taking samples and recording environmental conditions at the sampling sites. Stantec Consulting, an engineering firm with an office in Raleigh, used the results to develop a computer model that identified bacteria sources and determined how the pollution is getting in the river.

> Map of Sampling Sites (pdf)

The grant also included developing methods to control stormwater, public education and involvement by the community and local officials for an overall strategy to address the stormwater issues in the river. The model will hopefully provide a tool for addressing pollution in other water bodies along our coast and will compliment the Lockwood Folly Roundtable recommendations and help the county guide the implementation of the strategies and retrofit projects.

Added Benefits

An integral by-product component of the Lockwood strategy includes the opportunity for people to be actively engaged in projects that identify issues and solutions that the everyday resident of our coast can be involved in. As a result, most of the Lockwood volunteers now are engaged in other coastkeeping activities with Mike. Seven of the volunteers joined hundreds of other coastal residents in Raleigh in June 2008 to lobby legislators for stronger stormwater rules and clean water. They also frequently volunteer at federation restoration projects and man the federation booth at the many events held in the Southeast Region.

This project highlights the need for the development of a watershed management strategy for the entire coastal region to reverse the degradation of our important water resources that are critical to our overall economy and specifically to our important commercial and recreational fishing industry. If we continue the course we are on many more water bodies will be unavailable for fishing and traditional uses.

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