NASHVILLE DISTRICT

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District is conducting a Duck River Watershed Assessment, which is expected to be completed in Fiscal Year 2013.  This page includes information about the study area, how to get involved, information on the study process, and links to the reports as they become available.  Our goal is to better understand the Duck River watershed and the things that impact its health.

The Duck River watershed encompasses 3,500 square miles of south central Tennessee including portions of Bedford, Coffee, Dickson, Hickman, Humphreys, Lawrence, Lewis, Marshall, Maury, Perry, Williamson and Wayne Counties. The Duck River originates near the town of Manchester in Coffee County. It meanders for approximately 270 miles across twelve counties before emptying into the Tennessee River in Humphreys County. The developed landscape ranges from small cities and towns to sparsely populated rural areas with the upper part of the watershed experiencing rapid urbanization and population growth. More than 250,000 middle Tennessee residents rely on the Duck River as their sole source of water.

The Duck River is considered one of the most biologically diverse rivers in North America and is an outstanding national resource. It has an almost unsurpassed variety of freshwater animal life and is one of three most diverse streams for fish and mussel diversity in the entire world. The Duck River basin provides habitat for 48 species listed as federally endangered, threatened, candidate or species of concern. The list includes some of the extremely rare freshwater mussels.

The watershed’s ecosystem is under stress from rapid urban development, land use changes, incompatible agricultural practices, wastewater management and water supply practices, and resource extraction activities. Many communities in the watershed are experiencing periodic flooding which is only expected to worsen as development continues. The major problems are quality of aquatic habitat and water supply. Aquatic habitat problems stem from riparian buffer alteration, bank erosion, sedimentation, nutrient loading, and low dissolved oxygen. Water supply issues are controversial because a high quality and quantity water flow is essential for both supporting rare aquatic species and meeting the basin’s growing municipal water demands.