usrwa.org
Just a short drive west from Madison, the rolling hills of the Driftless area offer miles of beautiful roads for bicycling, and the winding Upper Sugar River provides a couple hours of paddling in an afternoon.
But like many of Dane County’s waterways, the river is plagued by phosphorus, which contributes to the growth of smelly, green algae.
The west branch of the Sugar River, in fact, has tested above new limits set by the state Department of Natural Resources. Yet just upstream from this same area is some of the best trout fishing in the county.
A place where trout are reproducing and thriving is a precious commodity. Mount Vernon Creek is “one of the few places in Dane County where that’s happening,” says Wade Moder, executive director of the Upper Sugar River Watershed Association.
The Upper Sugar River Watershed Association is aiding efforts to clean the river, collaborating with area farmers and wastewater treatment plants to help meet the state’s new phosphorus standards. A new fundraiser should also help.
Angie Lucas
The event honors outdoor enthusiast Rob Lucas.
Established in honor of Rob Lucas, a psychologist for the Madison school district who died suddenly last July, the May 31 Rob’s Sugar River Ramble will celebrate the area’s recreational opportunities. Lucas loved biking and kayaking in the watershed, says Moder, and Lucas’ family and friends reached out to the Upper Sugar River Watershed Association to create an event honoring his life.
The Ramble features a choice of two bike rides, followed by a paddle down the river.
It launches from Mount Horeb, where participants can opt for a 20-mile bike ride on hilly back roads along the Upper Sugar River’s west branch or a flatter 15 miles on the Military Ridge State Trail. Ramblers will then take to the water with a paddle through the new Falk Wells Sugar River Wildlife Area, off Hwy. 69 and Sunset Drive northwest of Paoli. Transportation back to Mount Horeb for food, beer tasting and live music is included in the $40 fee. Canoe rentals are available for an additional fee.
In 2010 the DNR adopted maximum standards for phosphorus in surface waters. Above that benchmark the waterways face excess plant growth and depleted oxygen and are considered “impaired.”
It’s not known which areas are most affected. The watershed association hopes additional testing will help pinpoint where most of the phosphorus is entering. “Because this is such a new standard, the biggest need is more testing,” Moder says.
The organization’s volunteers already monitor water quality at 25 sites in the watershed, which covers an area from Belleville, north to near West Towne Mall, west to Mount Horeb, and back to Belleville along Hwy. 78 and County Hwy. A.
The group hopes to start testing phosphorus levels at some of those sites; this requires lab analysis and costs over $150 per site for a year, says Moder. They’ll start by testing at the end of creeks feeding into the river to narrow down which subwatersheds are contributing the greatest phosphorus load.
It will also help wastewater treatment plants in Mount Horeb and Belleville use systems similar to cap-and-trade, the approach that has been proposed for reducing carbon pollution.
Water quality trading and adaptive management are two options. They both allow a pollution source (such as a wastewater treatment plant) to comply with the phosphorus standard by paying for improvements elsewhere in the watershed (usually from nonpoint sources, like farms).
The main difference between the two strategies is that water quality trading uses computer models to calculate the amount of phosphorus reductions required, while adaptive management uses in-stream testing to gauge success. Both are often much less expensive for the treatment plants to “counteract their emissions” than if they removed more phosphorus at the plant itself, Moder says. Neither Mount Horeb nor Belleville has decided on which approach to adopt.
The Upper Sugar River Watershed Association is also helping farmers find ways to prevent phosphorus runoff, including through the installation of trough eaves and the planting of cover crops on land bordering the river. With more data, the association will be able to identify the locations with the highest phosphorus load as well as the greatest potential for improvements, Moder says.
To participate in Rob’s Sugar River Ramble, pre-registration is required by Tuesday, May 26. Event details and registration can be found online at usrwa.org/ramble.
