A nontaxonomic method for monitoring stream community response to sewage stress was tested for 1 year on two small streams in southwest Virginia. The method represents an improvement in field testing approaches through increased replicability, decreased sampling time, and year-round applicability. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels from microbial communities in organically stressed portions of Cedar Run were significantly higher than the unstressed portions of Cedar Run and Wilson Creek, whereas chlorophyll a levels were significantly lower. Microbial autotrophy indexes (AIs) calculated from the ATP and chlorophyll measurements increased significantly below the outfall. The AIs were inversely related to macroinvertebrate diversity and the number of taxa. Macroinvertebrate functional groups showed a balance between scrapers, collector-gatherers, and collector-filterers at all unstressed stations and a predominance of collector-gatherers or collector-gatherers and collector-filterers at the stressed stations. A significant inverse correlation was found between the AIs and the proportion of macroinvertebrate scrapers.