Water Quality Division
Blue Thumb Program
Volunteer Data Interpretation
Rock Creek: Hwy 33
NE NE SE
N35° 59’ 35.7” (35.99325°)
W 96° 08’ 11.9” (-96.136689°)
WBID #: OK120420-02-0060G
Description of Watershed and Monitoring Site
Rock Creek is located along State Highway 33 on the west side of Sapulpa, in northeast Oklahoma. It is situated in the Cross Timbers ecoregion. Its watershed area (drainage area) covers about 50 square miles and includes oil field use, housing, pasture land, and natural timbers and recreational use. Rock Creek drains southeast into Polecat Creek and eventually flows into the Arkansas River.
At the monitoring site for Rock Creek there is a lot of canopy cover shading over the creek and streamside vegetation along the creek. The water is smooth flowing, as there are few rocky runs or riffles. The site also has low channel sinuosity, meaning it is fairly straight. Instream cover, pool bottom substrate, pool variability, channel alteration, and bank stability were all at the medium range. Most of the 400 m of habitat assessed was in the middle of a golf course.
Fish were collected in July of 2007. At that time 172 fish were collected from sixteen different species. The number of species, compared with other Cross Timbers sites, was above average. Out of the sixteen species there were eight types of sunfish and three types of long-lived fish; intolerant or sensitive species of fish, however, were absent. When compared with other Cross Timbers sites, Rock Creek averages a 64%, which gives the creek a grade of C.
Macroinvertebrates have been collected twice, once in September of 2006, and again in February of 2007. In the summer testing of 2006, 124 organisms were collected. The creek only averaged 40% during the summer compared to reference sites which earned it a grade of C. A grade of C means that there are fewer species due to the loss of most intolerant forms. During the winter testing in 2007, however, the creek averaged an 85%, earning the creek an A. During this collection, there were 119 organisms collected. In both collections there was an absence of sensitive species.
Rock Creek has been tested since 2005 for the following: oxygen saturation, soluble nitrogen, orthophosphate phosphorus, pH, and chloride. Data shows that all of the tests were in the normal range.
Biological collections from Rock Creek are lacking intolerant/sensitive species. The fish collection and summer macroinvertebrate (bug) collection received a grade of C when compared with the average high quality stream in this ecoregion. The winter bug collection got a grade of A. The water chemistry is all in the normal range. The habitat is as good as the reference conditions for the ecoregion. There is something going on that is causing the fish and bugs to be limited to the more tolerant species.
By: Megan Muncy