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Bioassessment of Klingle Creek
01/02/92 - Water Quality Bioassessment of Klingle Creek by AU students

Klingle Creek (38ø55'59"N 73ø3'4"W) is a stream about 1/2 mile long which discharges into Rock Creek near Porter Street.
The Klingle watershed is about 1/2 square mile (320 acres.

The creek parallels the south side of Klingle Road and branches just west of Conn. Ave. into two branches, one following Klingle Road, the other paralleling the south side of Macomb Street.

A 3'6" storm drain, which parallels Klingle creek and Macomb Street, joins a 4'6" drain from Porter Street just before the combined system empties into Rock Creek.

The surface portions of the stream are cut through the Lower paleozoic Oligoclase-mica Facies of the Wissahickon Formation. Upper reaches are in the Kensington Granite Gneiss, a Piedmont formation of unknown geological age. A small proportion of the uppermost portions of the watershed lie in the Patuxent Formation, Upper Cretaceous sediments of the Coastal Plain.

In dry weather the stream is scarcely a trickle, flowing at about 0.6m/sec. It is often hidden beneath a carpet of leaves in the fall. Pools measured no more than a foot or so deep and most of the stream is no more than 3 or 4 inches deep.

However, erosion around the stream testifies to the impact of watershed pavement on its flow during a significant rain. We estimated that during even modest storms the level rises a foot or more above normal levels. Exposed tree roots at higher elevations suggest that during severe storms water may rise to over twice that level, threatening the storm drain and road next to it. The transverse profile of the stream is fairly steep, with slopes above 60ø; the north side is effectively canalized by the concrete emplacements of the storm drain. In some places the stream has eroded away a narrow vegetated buffer and it appears to be only a matter of time before the stream seriously threatens both the storm drain system and Klingle road.

As is usual with severely eroded streams, Klingle Creek shows evidence of scouring and deposition of bars of sand and gravel. Deeply embedded substrate, scouring and lack of bank stability contributed to a habitat assessment only 57% that of the reference stream.

On our visits the water has been clear, with little or no measured turbidity. Odors and oils were absent. The DO was 9 ppt at 5C, 71% saturated. We saw no evidence of sewage contamination, despite a 4'6" by 5' sewer line and a second 48" sewer line that cross the stream immediately upstream of our sampling site. Smaller sewer lines parallel the stream over almost all its length. We detected no chlorine, although the pH was low, about 6.5. The conductivity, about 450 micromhos/cm, was elevated, perhaps due to the use of road salt in the area.

Despite the small volume of flow, we observed a few black-nosed dace (fish) in the stream. There was little noticeable periphyton, although the input of organic matter from leaves was marked. Forty individuals belonging to 8 taxa were collected from two 0.25m2 quadrats. Over half the specimens belonged to the same species: a minute naid oligochaet, Stephensoniana trivandrana. The bioassessment was 0, compared to 44 for the reference site, 'Severely Impaired.'

Erosion, scouring, and deposition of sand and other sediment contribute to the small population size compared to the reference stream.The ratio of scrapers to filterer-collectors is low relative to that of the reference stream, suggesting eutrophication and organic enrichment. The heavy dominance of one taxon, a deposit-feeding oligochaete, indicates community stress; the fact that it is a deposit feeder indicates organic enrichment, also supported by the relatively low DO (71%). The number of EPT species is greatly reduced, another indication that pollution may be the source of the community stress. A decrease in both density (57%) and diversity (86%) relative to the reference station indicates toxic pollution. Toxic pollution, organic pollution, eutrophication and environmental degradation all appear to be important in this stream.

One potential source of organic pollution is episodic leaks in sewer lines. We noted no evidence of recent sewer leaks during our sampling visits, but on one preliminary visit to the site in January, 1991, sewage odors were evident in the area of the stream.

Klingle Road is closed pending road work in the area. This may temporarily improved conditions in the stream by reducing traffic and other human activity in the area. Construction may severely impact this small stream; it is likely that even more deterioration may occur unless care is taken to minimize loss of sediment into the stream. Additional canalization would further degrade the stream.