Council At-Large District 5, Council District 8, Planning District 5, Tributary

2.7.20. Moncrief Creek

2.7.20.1. About Moncrief Creek

Figure 2.49 The Moncrief Creek Tributary (WBID 2228) with sanitary sewer overflows reported by JEA in 2022 (JEA 2022b).
Figure 2.49 The Moncrief Creek Tributary (WBID 2228) with sanitary sewer overflows reported by JEA in 2022 (JEA 2022b).
    • North of downtown Jacksonville
    • Primary Land Use: Residential
    • Current TMDL reports:
      Fecal Coliform with BMAP
    • 2022 Verified Impairment for Nutrients (Chlorophyll-a) (2228A), Copper (2228A), and Iron (2228A/2228B)
    • WBID Area: 5.9 sq. mi.
    • Beneficial Use: Class III F/M
      (2228A Recreational – Marine, 2228B Recreational – Freshwater)

2.7.20.2. Data sources

Data were historically downloaded from the FL STORET website (DEP 2010f), with recent data downloaded from WIN WAVES (DEP 2022f). Data were filtered based on the stations in the Moncrief Creek WBID 2228A (marine) and 2228B (freshwater) (DEP 2023b) shown above. The filtered dataset reflects water column concentrations and was used to generate Table 2.25.

2.7.20.3. Discussion

Water quality data for Moncrief Creek are shown in Table 2.25. Historical average phosphorus levels were higher than the recently updated WQC (DEP 2015c; DEP 2016d; DEP 2016i), and the average total phosphorus levels have remained near or above the WQC in 2020-2022. The marine reach (2228A) has especially high phosphorus levels double the WQC in 2022, although less sampling than the freshwater reach (2228B). Average nitrogen levels also exceed the WQC in the marine reach (2228A), while the freshwater reach (2228B) remains below the WQC. Dissolved oxygen concentrations were within acceptable limits on average.  Average chlorophyll-a concentrations are consistently above the WQC 2020-2022 in the marine reach (2228A).  In the freshwater reach (2228B), average chlorophyll-a concentrations were below the WQC.

Moncrief Creek was identified as being impaired for mercury, based on elevated levels of mercury in fish tissue; however, Moncrief Creek was delisted (DEP 2015a) as it has been addressed by the statewide mercury TMDL (DEP 2013c). The marine reach (2228A) is verified impaired for copper and iron concentrations (DEP 2022). No metals data were available 2020-2022 for the marine reach. The freshwater reach of Moncrief Creek (2228B) has been identified as impaired for iron (DEP 2014c; DEP 2020g). FDEP considers Moncrief Creek a medium priority for development of TMDLs for iron levels (DEP 2016d). Based on very limited metals sampling 2020-2022 (3 total samples), the average concentrations of heavy metals were below the applicable WQC for the freshwater reach (2228B).

A TMDL report for fecal coliform was published for Moncrief Creek in 2006 (Wainwright 2006b), with an 83% reduction in contributing sources. (Note: the data analyses in the TMDL are based on different criteria than those used in this report). Subsequently, a BMAP for Moncrief Creek (DEP 2010a) was released in August 2010. Additional information about fecal coliform in the tributaries can be found in Section 2.6 and Table 2.3. While Moncrief Creek remains impaired for fecal coliform, the size of the exceedances has decreased since implementation of the BMAP; the median exceedance has decreased from 2,600 CFU/100 mL in the TMDL report to 1,300 CFU/100 mL in the first phase of the BMAP (2010-2014). (DEP 2016b). Fecal coliform measurements from 2020-2022 indicate that average fecal coliform levels remain elevated several times above the WQC. In 2018, FDEP piloted microbial source tracking strategies in selected impaired waterbodies.  They found that the strategies used could be used to narrow down areas suspected of containing sources that actively contribute fecal indicating bacteria to water in order to identify and remediate them, but this work is resource-intensive. Moncrief Creek was found to have known sources of untreated human waste present (DEP 2019a). In 2020, both the freshwater and marine portions of Moncrief Creek were added to FDEP’s study list to monitor the response in fecal coliform levels (E. coli in the freshwater portions and Enterococcus in the marine portions) to ongoing restoration activities taking place as part of the existing BMAP (DEP 2020f).

COJ has chosen Moncrief Creek as a focus watershed to monitor progress in the reduction of pollution from stormwater flows.  Stormwater is the main source of the headwaters of Moncrief Creek, and there were 22 stormwater treatment ponds in the Moncrief Creek watershed in 2017.  COJ plans to sample Moncrief Creek quarterly with respect to its effectiveness in stormwater treatment pollution reduction (COJ 2017).

No recent measurements were available in WIN between 2020 and 2022 for the marine reach (2228A) for the following parameters: Arsenic, Cadmium, Copper, Iron, Lead, Nickel, Silver, Zinc.

Historical water quality data for Moncrief Creek are available in previous versions of the River Report.

Table 2.25 Water quality data for Moncrief Creek.

 

Water QualityAverage and Number of Samples º
ParameterCriteria202020212022
Dissolved Oxygen (mg/L)≥34% sat. (≥3.0) FW5.74
(1 of 42 samples)		5.92
(4 of 42 samples)		5.76 ± 0.25
(2 of 45 samples)
≥4.0 SW5.5
(0 of 4 samples)		6.38
(0 of 4 samples)		5.76 ± 0.50
(0 of 4 samples)
Total Nitrogen (mg/L)<1.54‡ FW0.87
(0 of 20 samples)		0.69
(0 of 11 samples)		0.93 ± 0.08
(1 of 21 samples)
<1.54‡ SW2.37 ± 0.33
(4 of 4 samples)
Total Phosphorus (mg/L)<0.12‡ FW0.15
(14 of 25 samples)		0.10
(7 of 29 samples)		0.11 ± 0.02
(6 of 21 samples)
<0.12‡ SW0.24 ± 0.01
(4 of 4 samples)
Chlorophyll-a (¬µg/L)<20‡ FW6.79
(3 of 22 samples)		11.51
(4 of 22 samples)		9.83 ± 3.62
(4 of 15 samples)
<5.4‡ SW12.18
(2 of 3 samples)		22.14
(5 of 5 samples)		34.00 ± 18.01
(3 of 3 samples)
Arsenic (¬µg/L)≤50 Not available1.36
(0 of 2 samples)		1.30
(0 of 1 samples)
Cadmium (¬µg/L)≤0.3 FWNot available0.01
(0 of 2 samples)		0.01
(0 of 1 samples)
Copper (¬µg/L)≤9.3 FWNot available1.39
(0 of 2 samples)		1.07
(0 of 1 samples)
Iron (mg/L)≤1.0 FWNot available0.69
(0 of 2 samples)		0.75
(0 of 1 samples)
Lead (¬µg/L)≤3.2 FWNot available0.67
(0 of 2 samples)		0.80
(0 of 1 samples)
Nickel (¬µg/L)≤52 FWNot available1.25
(0 of 2 samples)		1.25
(0 of 1 samples)
Silver (¬µg/L)≤0.07 FWNot available0.01
(0 of 2 samples)		0.01
(0 of 1 samples)
Zinc (¬µg/L)≤120 FWNot available12.50
(0 of 2 samples)		2.50
(0 of 1 samples)
Fecal Indicator Bacteria (CFU/100 mL)E. coli <410 FW490
(13 of 46 samples)		700
(19 of 44 samples)		1107 ± 491
(11 of 38 samples)
E. coli <410 SW4029 ± 3586
(2 of 3 samples)
Enterococci <130 SW364
(1 of 1 samples)
Turbidity (NTU)<29 FW9.35
(2 of 25 samples)		10.22
(3 of 29 samples)		15.41 ± 3.75
(5 of 21 samples)
<29 SW10.20 ± 0.80
(0 of 4 samples)
Note: Hardness-dependent freshwater criteria for cadmium, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc were generated based on a hardness concentration of 100 mg/L.
° = Number of samples below Water Quality Criteria for Dissolved Oxygen; Number of samples above Water Quality Criteria for all other parameters.
FW = freshwater; SW = saltwater (marine). Values denoted with (*) indicate a proposed criterion, which has not yet been adopted.