Sediment flux and storage in a southeastern piedmont river system

Abstract

A sediment budget was developed for a representative rural southeastern Piedmont watershed to provide information on the relative importance of sediment sources. Sediment is the single most important water quality problem and the largest contributor by volume of Non Point Source Pollution (NPSP) in the United States (Neary et al.), and Georgia is currently required by court order to develop sediment Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for several of the states' waterways that are not meeting designated uses. One way to evaluate the relative contribution of various land use activities to total sediment load is to calculate a basin wide sediment budget. This project attempts to evaluate relative contributions of sediment by estimating storage, export and contributions of sediment from various sources. Results indicate, when compared to stored historical sediment, relative contributions of sediment from silvilcultural activities is minimal. To allocate equitable TMDLs for various industries this stored historical sediment must be considered.