A one-dimensional, steady-state, dissolved-oxygen model and waste-load assimilation study for Silver Creek, Clark and Floyd counties, Indiana

The Indiana State Board of Health is developing a State water-quality management plan that includes establishing limits for wastewater effluents discharged into Indiana streams. A digital model calibrated to conditions in Silver Creek was used to develop alternatives for future waste loadings that would be compatible with Indiana stream water-quality standards defined for two critical hydrologic conditions, summer and winter low flows. Effluents from the Sellersburg and Clarksville-North wastewater-treatment facilities are the only point-source waste loads that significantly affect the water quality in the modeled segment of Silver Creek.

Model simulations indicate that nitrification is the most significant factor affecting the dissolved-oxygen concentration in Silver Creek during summer and winter low flows.

Natural streamflow in Silver Creek during the summer and annual 7-day, 10-year low flow is zero, so no benefit from dilution is provided. Present ammonia-nitrogen and dissolved-oxygen concentrations of effluent from the Sellersburg and Clarksville-North wastewater-treatment facilities will not meet current Indiana water-quality standards for ammonia toxicity and dissolved oxygen during summer and winter low flows.

The current biochemical-oxygen-demand limits for the Sellersburg and Clarksville-North wastewater-treatment facilities are not sufficient to maintain an average dissolved-oxygen concentration of at least 5 milligrams per liter, the State's water-quality standard for streams.

Calculations of the stream's assimilative capacity indicate that Silver Creek cannot assimilate additional waste loadings and meet current Indiana water-quality standards.