Fox River Appleton Watershed

The Fox River/Appleton Watershed includes a 39 square mile (102 square kilometers) area of land in southcentral Calumet County. This includes the city of Appleton. The main tributary to the Fox River is Mud Creek and many unnamed tributaries. The headwaters were mainly agricultural and are rapidly becoming developed by industrial parks. This, of course, results in large increases of stormwater velocities to these streams. Construction of these new businesses also creates large erosion problems and heavy doses of sediment to the streams.

In 1992 a watershed assessment was conducted by WDNR to determine the impacts of nonpoint source pollution on water quality. The Fox River/Appleton Watershed was ranked "High" for streams. The watershed is now eligible for selection as a priority watershed under the Wisconsin Nonpoint Source Pollution Abatement Program. Refer to the 1995 Fox River/Appleton Watershed Nonpoint Source Assessment Report by Mary Gansberg for more information.

There are two municipal point source discharger and four industrial point source dischargers in the Fox River/Appleton Watershed: Appleton City, Heart of the Valley Metro. Sewerage District, Anchor Food Products, Foremost Farms USA Coop Appleton (2 facilities) and Thilmany Division International Paper.

Sewer service area plans are developed under Wisconsin Administrative Code NR 121 for cities, towns, villages etc., with populations exceeding 10,000. Plans are developed to control growth in outlying areas and to protect water quality of streams, wetlands, lakes, and groundwater. The 1995 census estimated 68,244 people in city of Appleton and an estimated population of 77,643 for 2015 (WDOA 1995 and ECRPC 1997). A Sewer Service area plan was developed for the Fox Cities (Appleton, Grand Chute/Menasha West, Heart of the Valley and Neenah/Menasha) by East Central Regional Planning Commission in 1979 and updated in 1990 and 1997.

Recommendations

1. Lower Fox River Basin Team should conduct basin assessment trend stream monitoring on Mud Creek to assess long-term water quality trends in the Lower Fox River Basin (Type B).

2. Lower Fox River Basin Team should conduct sediment sampling on Mud Creek to determine if sediment contamination exists and to develop a sediment inventory for the Lower Fox River Basin (Type B).

3. The Lower Fox River Basin Team should continue to monitoring activities on Mud Creek to meet the Lower Fox River Basin IEM Project goals (Type B).

4. The State Lab of Hygiene and Lower Fox River Basin Team should conduct biomonitoring on Mud Creek to determine acute and chronic toxicity levels and how it is impacting aquatic organisms (Type B).

5. Lower Fox River Basin Team should conduct basin assessment fixed station (ambient) stream monitoring on the Fox River/Appleton to assess long-term water quality trends in the Lower Fox River Basin and to meet the statewide water quality monitoring network goals (Type B).

6. WDNR FMHP staff, in cooperation with WT, should analyze walleye, northern pike, white bass, crappie, yellow perch, carp, gizzard shad, common shiners and smallmouth bass, from Lower Fox River to determine PCB concentrations and to update the Fish Consumption Advisory. Large walleye should also be analyzed for mercury (Type B).

7. The Land and Water Conservation Boardshould consider the Fox River/Appleton Watershed as a potential NPS project due to its "High" streams ranking (Type B).

8. East Central Regional Planning Commission should continue updating and amending the Fox-Cities Sewer Service Area Plan (Appleton, Grand Chute/Menasha West & Heart of the Valley) on an as needed basis to prevent development in unsuitable areas (environmental sensitive areas) and protect surface and ground water quality (Type B).

9. Lower Fox River Basin Team, Bureau of Watershed Management, Bureau of Fish Management & Habitat Protection should work with local governments, industry and other environmental agencies (USEPA, USFWS, USGS etc) to remediate contaminated sediment deposits in the Lower Fox River (Type B).

Mud Creek

Mud Creek, a 8-mile stream, originates in an urban area and continues through the southwestern corner of Appleton before discharging into the Fox River. Stream habitat was rated poor to fair. Streambank erosion is infrequent, however, there are some raw areas with high erosion potential during high flows (Gansberg 1998). The stream substrate is mostly rubble, gravel or other stable habitat but covered with a layer of fine clay sediment. Construction activities near the creek mouth appear to be contributing a significant amount of sediment to the creek. In July, a plume could be seen in the receiving waterbody from a particular construction site. Macrophytes are abundant but generally not over abundant. Filamentous algae is common on the rocky bottom substrate where exposed to sunlight. Macroinvertebrate samples indicate poor to fair water quality with fairly significant to very significant organic pollution. A brief survey was conducted in August 1992 in a stretch of creek near Spencer Road. One tolerant sport fish (green sunfish), two intermediate tolerance fish (Johnny Darter) and abundant tolerant forage species (emerald shiners, white suckers and brook stickleback) were present. Mud Creek receives a considerable amount of suspended solids during runoff events sampled. Chlorides were slightly elevated but ammonia and BOD-5 were within the acceptable ranges (Gansberg 1995).

Map of the Watershed