Murfreesboro Water and Sewer Department
STORM WATER DEPARTMENT - (615) 848-3200
What is a HUC 12 and what does it mean to you?
HUC is an acronym for a Hydrologic Unit Code. This is the EPA’s and the State of Tennessee’s way to organize watersheds (any surface area that drains to a single water body) for analyzing and protecting.
There are many levels of HUC numbering based on the size of the watershed, usually the smaller the watershed the longer the number. A simple way of looking at it is a HUC 12 (Lytle Creek 051302030204) drains into the larger watershed HUC 8 (Stones River 05130203) which along with many other local rivers (e.g. Harpeth 05130204 and The Caney Fork 05130108) drains into the Cumberland River 0513. From there it goes to the Ohio River and then the Mississippi River and finally to the Gulf of Mexico.
This all sounds very complicated, but once you look at watersheds at the local level (Murfreesboro = The Stones River) you will find watershed designations more familiar. Many watersheds, including the Stones River, have watershed associations to help protect the watershed, such as The Stones River Watershed Association.
The HUC 12 watersheds are at the neighborhood level which makes it easy for an individual to get involved with the creek or stream they see everyday.
For more information about our watersheds, visit the web site of Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Division of Water Pollution Control.
HUC 12 Descriptions
(Stats are based on real time parcel data. Impervious surface data is based on 2003 data and will be updated at the end of this year.)
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