Focus Watershed: North Fork of the Kentucky River

The North Fork of the Kentucky River and its tributaries have consistently been found to have high fecal coliform counts, making them unsafe for wading, swimming and boating.  These waterways also receive pollutant loads from mining and logging operations within the North Fork watershed.  Students at Letcher County High School have been monitoring water quality parameters on various streams in the watershed through Kentucky’s Water Watch program and have provided related presentations to the Letcher County Water and Sewer District and County Court members.

This watershed grant will be used to fund periodic water testing for fecal coliform and heavy metals in order to further assess sewage, mining and logging contamination in Letcher County.  The water quality of a “high quality stream” (Bad Branch Falls) will be compared to the quality of poorer quality sites in the North Fork watershed.  The information learned through this project will be used by the students to encourage improvements to their local watersheds.