WATER Quality Variability In Two Creeks of The Collins RIVER Subwatershed Dominated By Nursery CROP Production.

The Collins River watershed is located in Middle Tennessee on the Cumberland Plateau. It drains four counties in Middle Tennessee including Warren County.   According to USDA-NASS, in 2007, Warren County had the highest percentage (65.3) of nursery farms in Tennessee.  The objective of this study was to determine the variability of water quality parameters in two in-flow creeks of the Collins River and the impact of field nursery production systems on surface water quality. The creeks selected were Hills creek (HC) and Mountain creek (MC) in Warren County; and an additional creek, East Fork Stone River in Rutherford County. The later creek was selected as a control creek because of the fewer nursery operations in the area.  The water sampling period span summer, winter and spring seasons. Water samples were collected in eight consecutive weeks during these seasons at base flow. The water quality parameters of interest were pH, turbidity, specific conductance (spCond), dissolved oxygen (DO), total dissolved solids (TDS) and temperature.  Data was subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) using SAS.   The statistical significance was at p<0.05.  Results indicated that Hills Creek and Mountain Creek did not show a high level of pollution during base flow conditions.  However, during storm events, surface runoff contributed to large volumes of sediments transported to the water bodies, especially from areas with exposed soil and minimal conservation practices