Vanderbilt Creek and its watershed are valued as productive salmon and wildlife habitat.
Beginning in 1950 the watershed and surrounding area have been rapidly developed into a
commercial and industrial center. Recently, there has been an increased awareness of industrial
impacts on the Vanderbilt Watershed, but only a few reports detail the impact of development on
habitat and water quality in Vanderbilt Creek.
When the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation collected baseline water quality
data for Vanderbilt and Lemon Creeks in 1993, it was found that Vanderbilt was an impaired
system. A Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for sediment and debris was approved for
Vanderbilt in 1995. The TMDL is a management tool that identifies actions and pollution
controls necessary to bring Vanderbilt Creek into compliance with water quality standards.
Most of the mitigation actions outlined in the TMDL, including water quality monitoring, have
not been executed to the extent described in the document. Several other stewardship efforts,
such as debris removal and volunteer-level monitoring, attended to some of the listed actions, but
have not been sufficient in fully recovering habitat values.
The limited information and data collected since the 1995 TMDL, suggests that Vanderbilt Creek
is still impaired. However, baseline data is nearly non-existent for this watershed and water
quality and biological data remain deficient for quantifying the extent that urban development
has affected the watershed’s habitat value.
Little information exists on how natural processes, such as isostatic rebound, could be affecting
the watershed. With the recent increased understanding of how isostatic rebound is affecting
other watersheds within the Juneau area, it is imperative that this process is considered in
planning the recovery of Vanderbilt Creek and other potentially affected watersheds like it.
It is likely that the demand for development within the Vanderbilt Creek Watershed will
continue. A comprehensive monitoring plan should be implemented in order to obtain necessary
baseline data to ensure the health of the watershed, and potential impacts of anthropogenic and
natural processes should be determined. This document identifies and evaluates data and
information collected since 1995 to provide an updated management and recovery plan for the
Vanderbilt Creek Watershed.
