Piney Creek Watershed is a major tributary to the New River. However it has a major problem. It has fecal coliform levels that are scary. The average fecal test that pasts is under 200 ppm (parts per million) within many places in Piney Creek Watershed it tops 5 000. We are hoping to do some water monitoring to find out where most of it is coming from and then look for alternative ways to which the local population (mostly low income) could help to fix the problem.

No one will take a project seriously if there are no numbers to corroborate what is happening. So we will start our project by testing the waters in 5 of the 10 major tributaries of Piney Creek. Then we will do research on what can be done to help those that are not in compliance with the waste water codes to see what can be done about to help with the problem.

We will test the water over the course of 9 months to see the changes within the watershed and also to make sure that one or two testings of high level of fecal are not a fluke. Our goal is to make Piney Creek a healthier stream where people can go fishing and not have to worry about their health. This would also make the New River cleaner which would allow for healthier waters and healthier people. We will work on this from October 2008-June 2009 in the water testing stage and then another year or two on possible ways to clean the river