Tennessee Waterways

To most Tennesseans, rivers and lakes are a part of life. They are used for swimming and boating, most of our cities are located near them, and they are a large part of the beautiful, green landscape that is so familiar in Tennessee. These waterways are important to Tennessee, and are an essential part of life for thoses inside and around them. Our forests and the animals that live within them depend on clean, flowing water, which is not often the case in developed areas. Fertilizers, pesticides and other pollutants can attach themselves to soil particles and find their way to your creek.

The Nature Conservancy of Tennessee recently sampled every waterway in Middle Tennessee to assess the health of the Cumberland River, Old Hickory River, and more, and found that around 50% of Tennessee rivers and streams were unhealthy, usually from excess silt, which occurs naturally in rivers through soil and erosion, but excessive amounts can negatively affect water quality and ecosystems, and pollution. Silt usually results from erosion, agriculture, and construction, and as Nashville grows bigger every day, siltation also grows in the rivers near these new construction sites.

Other issues can also arise in rivers, mostly in the form of pollution. Pollution is carried to rivers through groundwater, and in rivers like the Cumberland generally consists of litter, fertilizers and pesticides, car exhaust, and leaching of chemicals. These pollutants harm and kill the organisms that live in the rivers and streams, and damage the ecosystem of the stream so that it is harder to recover the populations.

Fortunately there are individual steps that can be taken to help our waterways. Those who live near a waterway can allow a no-mow zone that allows native plants to create a buffer to filter out pollutants and decrease loose soil, which builds up in streams. Rain gardens can filter rainwater and runoff before it enters streams, and replenish water tables, which form springs and small underground creeks that are vital to Tennessee ecosystems. Fertilizers and pesticides should be decreased or ended altogether in favor of other methods, especially in lawn care, which has become increasingly popular in Nashville, with extremely negative effects for wildlife in the surrounding area.

Taking small steps to protect our rivers and lakes, like growing rain gardens, not using fertilizers or weed killers, or leaving native plants as a buffer next to waterways are all small ways that anyone can make a change in the water quality around them.