To: E.coli Information List Members

Re: recent E.coli in Brushy Brook & Tributary

 

 

Hello everybody,

 

 

I am getting a number of questions about the high e.coli numbers in the tributary to Brushy Brook.  I thought I would send this out to the whole list to inform everybody at once.

 

The tributary we have been testing runs under the Camels Hump Road just below the Taft’s Sugarhouse.  It then skirts along the edge of their new barnyard, through a part of their pasture and under the road again just uphill from the “Taft” Bridge.  The samples are taken at the outflow of the culvert just above the bridge.

 

As you may or may not know, Tim Taft is a member of the Huntington Conservation Commission. Both he and his wife Margaret have been very much a part of our e.coli investigation.  Margaret is also one of our weekly sample volunteers.

 

I began testing the sites at Taft Bridge and at the tributary a few weeks ago.  During our regular monthly sampling of stream mouths, the site at the Brushy Brook/Main Road bridge was running high.  The following week I tested at the next bridge upstream (Taft) and again at the Main Road bridge.  The Taft site was very low, and the Main Road was high.  Assuming that the contamination source was between the two bridges, I took the next logical step and tested the tributary that runs through the pasture and enters Brushy Brook downstream from the Taft Bridge.

 

As we know, this site tested quite high.  Through all this I have been in touch with Tim and Margaret.  My first and most immediate concern was that I had seen cows standing in and along the banks of the tributary as it runs through the pasture.  This situation was fixed right away- Tim put up a fence that keeps the cows away from the brook.  He also added a water source at the other end of the pasture so they would not continue to hang out near the brook.

 

As part of their new barn construction, the Taft’s have been installing a federally designed runoff management system.  This system will handle rainwater runoff from the barn roofs, the barnyard area and the silage storage areas.  The final components of this system are still under construction.  It is possible that disturbance during construction of theses systems has contributed to the recent high e.coli counts.   Tim invited me for a tour of the farm’s runoff systems and it is quite impressive.  As these systems continue to come on line, I expect we will see further improvement of the water quality in the area.  I am pleased to say the Tafts have been very responsive and willing to make changes to eliminate potential sources of contamination that may originate on their farm. 

 

For the last couple of weeks, the samples taken on Brushy Brook have been low, while the tributary continues to be high.  There isn’t much water in the little stream to dilute the contamination, and it appears not to be continually affecting downstream areas of Brushy Brook or the Huntington River.

 

IMPORTANT:  Based on the data we have collected over the last 2 years, I do not believe this stream is a major contributor to the e.coli presence in the Huntington River.  Our data still indicates to me that septic systems, particularly in the concentrated villages, will prove to be the single biggest piece of this puzzle.   

 

Let me know if you have any further questions.

 

Aaron

 

 

 

Aaron Worthley

950 Bert White Road

Huntington, VT 05462

(802)434-7012

aaronw@gmavt.net