Johnson County Soil & Water Conservation District "To clear our water by treating every acre with respect."
Clear Creek Tour: Oxford to the Headwaters Dave Ratliff, Johnson and Iowa County Watershed Coalition Leader, led members of the Clear Creek Advisory Board on a tour of upper Clear Creek on October 13, 2008. Read about Dave's significant contributions to the improvement of Clear Creek's water quality in the article "The Power of One: The Clear Creek Story." Written by Brian Soenen, Iowa DNR, this article appeared in the Summer 2008 Volunteer Monitor, a national newsletter of volunteer watershed monitoring.
Stop 1: The tour began on the Chambers Ave. bridge at the confluence of Clear Creek and Rhine Creek southeast of Oxford. This is the lower end of the original 303(d) section of Clear Creek. Rhine Creek flows along the east edge of Oxford and is impacted by that community's wastewater treatment facility.
Stop 2: From a bridge on Iowa County's Y Ave., the group saw Clear Creek at the site where a branch of the creek flows in from the southwest. Water studies show this branch (pictured below) picks up pollutants where it flows through "Little Amana." Gully erosion from adjacent farmland (left) is an especially common sight along Clear Creek following this year's rains. Stop 3: Clear Creek looking upstream (above) and downstream (right) from a bridge on 200th St., near U Ave. This is the farthest from Conroy that sewage was documented in the creek. Formerly the top of the 303(d) section, it is now section's lower end. A logjam from summer storms has formed against bridge abutments. Stop 4: At the site where Clear Creek and S Ave. met, local kids swam and caught creek chub before concerns about sewage from Conroy became widely known. Looking upstream from S. Ave., the creek runs through a deep gully. In the mid-1800s at the time it was surveyed, this portion of the creek meandered through wetlands. Stop 5: Clear Creek at R Ave. -- getting closer to the headwaters near Conroy. Monitoring snapshots at this site revealed high chloride and high bacteria levels. The search for the source of these pollutants began in 2003. Stop 6: These two junction boxes on Q Ave., southwest of Conroy, were at the center of the impaired water issues facing Clear Creek. High chloride levels found at one junction box were traced to a nearby DOT salt shed; human sewage and toilet paper discovered at the other box were traced to the unincorporated, unsewered community of Conroy. Stop 7: Members of the Clear Creek board are shown at the site of the new wastewater treatment lagoon near Conroy. Home | Who we are | What we offer | More about us | What's new | Events calendar | Committees | Job/Volunteer opportunities | Contact us | Newsletters/Notes | Visuals Johnson County Soil & Water Conservation District 51 Escort Lane Iowa City, IA 52240 Phone: 319/337-2322, ext. 3 Fax: 319/358-9521 jcswcd@yahoo.com