United States||if= a,
BnviroiimentfKProtection
Agency ft-"'' -
;Offic;e.of Water (4501F)
•Office of Wetlands,
Oceans and Watersheds
EPA840-F-96-003
November-1996
»EPA WATERSHED PROGRESS:
** TW '•'•••"';. '': » : i • • -*.<«S
^^ja»flffl(; Creek Watershed-":.*•
* ^tefc A
• k*L.
-------
Since 1991, the U.S. EPA has been promoting the watershed approach as a mechanism
to achieve the next generation of water protection. The focus on watersheds, or drain-
age areas, provides people living there a meaningful context in which to identify prob-
lems and solutions. Below is a description of the Hot Creek Watershed where the
watershed approach is making a difference.
The system:
Royal John Mine
Grant County, MM
The Hot Creek watershed covers an
area of approximately 26 square
miles on the west flank of the
Mimbres Mountains in southwest
New Mexico. The watershed is a
subwatershed of the Mimbres River
basin and is part of the Greater Gila
Ecosystem. The Greater Gila
Ecosystem covers an area of ap-
proximately twenty thousand square
miles in New Mexico and Arizona
and constitutes the largest tract of
wild country in the southwestern
United States. Three federal wilder-
ness areas, the Gila, the Aldo
Leopold, and the Blue as well as a dozen wilderness study areas are contained in this region.
The land in the upper reaches of the Hot Creek watershed are federally owned and administered
by the Gila National Forest; the lower half is primarily privately owned land. The vast areas of
public land around the Hot Creek watershed attract a wide variety of outdoor recreationalists.
Most outdoor recreation involves water in one way or another, and the scarcity of this resource
makes its continued presence and high quality all the more important.
In addition to the habitat and recreational uses of these scarce waters, resident ranchers and small
farmers rely on the resource for irrigation and livestock watering. Competing interests over
water resources are a part of this watershed's history that continue to this day.
The stresses and sources:
Under the New Mexico water quality standards program, the State has designated uses for the
Hot Creek Watershed, including cold water fishery, irrigation, livestock watering, wildlife habi-
tat, and secondary contact. The standards for most of these uses are frequently not attained due
to nonpoint sources of pollution and the poor overall condition of the watershed. Non-support of
water quality standards within the Hot Creek watershed is often due to sediment loading, metals
(lead, zinc and cadmium) and nutrients. The most severe water quality problems appear during
and after intense storm events. Point source and urban nonpoint source problems within the
watershed are minimal. The turbidity and nutrient problems are primarily a result of grazing,
the dominant land use practice in the watershed.
-------
For the past 150 years, the established practice throughout the Gila Ecosystem has been to allow
cattle to graze year round on marginal rangelands without active management. The result has
been the gradual demise of native grasses in the watershed, which accelerates storm water runoff
and results in the loss of vast quantities of the
.soil resource. The increasingly violent runoff
events have scoured much of the riparian vegeta-
tion, leaving raw banks and sediment-choked
channels. The cattle that continue to roam the
watershed are reduced to eating any palatable
greenery they can find including remnant ripar-
ian vegetation that may sprout from root stock or
seed dispersion. This further increases the
problem of bank failure, stream channel
incisement and sediment clogging. Pooled water
in these damaged reaches often becomes very
warm, allowing for excessive algal growth which
robs oxygen from the system as it decomposes.
Metal loading problems in the upper reaches of
the watershed originated primarily from concen-
trated sources in mine wastes. (The region was
heavily mined for zinc and lead from the 1880s
through the 1960s.) In fact, concern about the
transport of metals from the inactive Royal John
Mine originally motivated watershed residents to
organize and seek the help of the New Mexico
Environment Department (NMED) Nonpoint
Source Program ("the State").
Photo: Royal John Before Restoration
The Strategy and Successes
The State has conducted an extensive watershed investigation with the help of interested citizens,
identifying several sources of nonpoint pollution. The group confirmed that the most concen-
trated sources of metal loading to Hot Creek were associated with the inactive Royal John Mine.
Sparse vegetative cover in the rugged upland range was also identified as a wide spread problem
leading to increased turbidity (cloudiness of water). Concentrated cattle waste was also a prob-
lem, particularly in shallow pools, and resulted in algae blooms and reduced dissolved oxygen.
Further, the dirt road system in the watershed was found to be a conduit and concentrator of
storm runoff, as well as a source of sediment.
With encouragement from the State, private citizens in the Hot Creek watershed formed an
advisory group to increase their influence over decisions affecting their water resources. The
advisory group succeeded in having the Gila National Forest take the lead on the first project in
the overall watershed restoration effort - the reclamation of the Royal John Mine in the headwa-
ters of the Hot Creek watershed. This pilot was highly successful through the cooperative effort
of both public and private lands and the entire range of interests in the watershed.
-------
The goal of stabilizing the
principle source of metals in
the watershed has been
accomplished. To restore the
stream channel below the
Royal John, the Gila Na-
tional Forest identified
several design alternatives
through the National Envi-
ronmental Policy Act pro-
cess. A wide range of
interested parties, including
the citizen watershed asso-
ciation, participated in the
design selection process.
The final design included
restoration of the stream
channel, site seeding and
mulching to encourage re-
growth of riparian vegetation. After this was completed, members of the watershed group
constructed a wetland treatment area to address remaining dissolved metals concerns from the
mine tailings. The private Hot Springs Ranch community provided all woody riparian and
wetland plants as well as labor for the restoration effort. In addition, the area was fenced to
protect the newly planted materials from cattle grazing. The continued effectiveness of this
effort will be monitored through regular water quality sampling and by visual measures from
fixed photo points of the recovery of the riparian and wetland resource at the Royal John Mine.
Further efforts to restore the integrity to the Hot Creek watershed will require the continued
cooperation and active participation of all the interested parties that live and work in the water-
shed. Future cooperative efforts may involve building cattle enclosures along key stream seg-
ments, active riparian restoration, road improvements, and necessary changes in livestock man-
agement on both private and public lands.
For more information, contact Brian Wirtz, New Mexico Environment Department, Nonpoint
Source Program at 505-827-2470.
Photo: Royal John Reclaimed
EPA'sRole
The U.S. EPA Region 6 has provided seed money for this effort through a Clean Water
Act Section 319(h) Grant to the NMED. In addition, EPA offers technical advice and
assistance to this and other citizen watershed restoration efforts. For more information,
contact Susan Branning at 214-665-8022.
Nationally, EPA has been reorienting its programs and developing tools to facilitate the
watershed approach since 1991. For more information on the watershed approach,
please contact the EPA at Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds, 401 M Street,
S.W. 4501F, Washington, DC 20460 (Attention: Watershed Outreach coordinator) or
visit us on the world-wide web at URL:http://www.epa.gov/OW/OWOW.
------- |