Picturesque stream at risk

Post staff report

It's going to take more than $1 million to halt the legacy of stream erosion
left by the folly of Captain's Cove.

Restoration work is expected to begin this spring or summer at Woolper Creek,
about 3 miles south of Petersburg in Northern Kentucky's Boone County.

It was there 15 years ago that developer Donald Streck drastically changed what
Mother Nature had created in the forested hills and valleys that are home to
wild turkeys, blue herons and red-tailed hawks.

To build Captain's Cove, proposed as a $25 million marina and condominium
project, Streck cut a channel through the middle of a natural, meandering
S-shaped curve in Woolper Creek to give boats easy access to the adjacent Ohio
River.

He also dredged seven acres of ponds and wetland and filled in the valley of an
unnamed tributary of the creek with tons of excavated soil and sediment.

But financial problems and the withdrawal of state and federal permits because
erosion hadn't been controlled brought the project to a stop long before it
could be finished.

Meanwhile, the erosion continued.

Finally, after 15 years of dredged sediment pouring into the creek with every
rain, the Northern Kentucky University Center for Applied Ecology is coming to
the rescue.

The center, which manages the Northern Kentucky Stream Corridor Restoration
Fund, hopes to begin reclamation work in a few months to alleviate the erosion.

The project will take one to two years and will be followed by five years of
monitoring to see if additional restoration is needed. It will be done in three
phases:

Repairing the filled-in stream valley by reconstructing a stream channel and
giving it a rock bottom. The banks of the channel will also be stabilized by
grading, so they're not so steep, and by planting trees and grasses to hold the
soil.

Engineering the basins below the valley that remain from dredged ponds and
wetlands to collect new sediment that comes downstream. They will act as
filters, slowing the flow of water and allowing silt to settle and, over 50 to
100 years, become new wetlands.

Reconstructing the original S-shaped meander on Woolper Creek that was robbed of
much of its flow-slowing capacity when a straight channel was cut through it.
That will allow the stream to function as it once did, slowing the flow of water
and retarding erosion.

It's a big job, but needed to remedy a big problem, says Barry Dalton, director
of the NKU Center for Applied Ecology.

"It is one of the most degraded streams I've seen in my 18 years of work in
Northern Kentucky and one of this area's largest stream problems," said Dalton.

"It's a problem not because of pollutants, but because of all the sediment, all
the silt. They (Streck's workers) took seven acres of ravine and made it flat.
They didn't do any restoration work afterwards.

"In recent years, thousands of tons of silt have been washing into the Ohio
River with every rain. The silt goes 20 feet deep in places. The problem is
huge, and it needs to be repaired."

Mark Jacobs, director of Split Rock Conservation Park, which leases land in the
area to be restored, said the unnaturally fast erosion has already taken a toll.

"It makes for poor water quality and affects the wildlife habitat of Woolper
Creek, which historically has been an excellent fishery with crappie, white
bass, catfish and largemouth bass," he said.

"The water is murky and the sediment affects invertebrates, which need gravel in
the bottom of the stream to hide and feed. If nothing is done, there will
continue to be erosion every time it rains, bringing tons of soil into the
creek."

Jacobs said slow erosion is natural, unlike the type of rapid erosion caused by
Streck's unfinished project.

"He altered the flow of the creek and did some pretty serious damage," said
Jacobs. "Because he changed the course of water, he sped up the natural erosion
process by several thousand years.

"It will be a real benefit to the community to restore something that has been
wrong and damaged so badly."

The money to pay for the reclamation will come from the Northern Kentucky Stream
Corridor Restoration Fund.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requires developers, highway departments,
airports and others who sometimes alter streams with construction projects to
donate money to the fund for stream restoration.

Dalton said the preliminary cost estimate of the Woolper Creek restoration is
$1.2 million to $1.4 million.

"To do restoration is costly," said Dalton. "That's the moral of this story."

The story of just how Streck got the green light to alter the course of the
creek is about as murky as the erosion-filled stream.

The project had been opposed by environmentalists, sportsmen and state and
federal water, fish and wildlife agencies because of possible pollution
problems,

Despite those concerns, Streck, whose family contributed $20,000 to the 1987
election campaign of former Kentucky Gov. Wallace Wilkinson, gained conditional
approval for the work about a week after Wilkinson's inauguration later that
year.

Construction was delayed while Streck served two years in prison for tax
evasion. While in prison, he also pleaded guilty to bank fraud.

Work began on the project in 1991 but was halted a year later when state and
federal water agencies refused to extend certification because Streck hadn't
controlled erosion and couldn't prove he had enough money to finish the
development.

Later, liens were placed against the 330 acres on which Streck had hoped to
build his marina and condominiums, and the land was sold at auction.

The current owner, along with the owner of adjacent land that drains into
Woolper Creek, are happy about the reclamation project and are cooperating with
it, said Dalton.

"The land owner above the stream has agreed to donate his good stream to the
project," Dalton said. "We're talking with the other land owner, who has offered
us a fairly sizable buffer area that will go back into forest and flood plains
for perpetuity.

"We have finished about 90 to 95 percent of our design work, and we hope to
start the restoration project this spring or summer."

Because of 15 years of erosion damage, Dalton said the area "will never be
natural again, but we will heal it to make it a functioning system."

"It's always tricky to work with streams and rivers, but this can be repaired,
and we anticipate a fairly high degree of success," he said. "It is a major
restoration project and will be a wonderful educational tool.

"I envision that we will be taking groups out there for a long time to come to
show them large-scale stream restoration. It will be a model. That's what we're
shooting for."

THE CENTER
The Northern Kentucky University Center for Applied Ecology:

Started as a non-profit, environmental research program in 1999.

Provides consulting and research, with emphasis on environmental and ecological
issues.

Specializes in ecology, botany, biology, engineering and geography.

Works with industry, local communities and government to solve environmental
problems in Northern Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley.

Has conducted more than 140 environmental projects, including stream and wetland
assessments, restoration and monitoring at Big Bone Lick State Park in Boone
County.

For more information, call (859) 572-1999.

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