Section 319
NONPOINT SOURCE PRO
CCESS STORY
Implementing Best Management Practices and Educating Landowners
Reduces Bacteria Levels
Waterbndv Imnroved Bacteria from livestock- leaking septic systems and wildlife
polluted Big Walnut Creek. The Indiana Department of
Environmental Management (IDEM) added three waterbody segments to Indiana's 1998
Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters for Escherichia coli bacteria.
After additional monitoring, IDEM added three more segments to the impaired waters
list in 2004. Using CWA section 319 funds, project partners installed best management
practices and educated stakeholders about sound agricultural management throughout the
watershed. Recent monitoring data show that the Big Walnut Creek segments meet water
quality standards for bacteria, prompting IDEM to propose removing all six segments from
the state's 2010 CWA section 303(d) list of impaired waters.
Problem
Big Walnut Creek is in a predominately agricultural
area in west-central Indiana's Hendricks and Boone
counties. The East and West Forks of Big Walnut
Creek flow south to form Big Walnut Creek, which
eventually flows into the Eel River. High bacteria
levels prompted IDEM to add three waterbodies in
the Big Walnut Creek watershed to Indiana's 1998
CWA section 303(d) list for £ coli impairment. IDEM
performed more extensive water quality monitoring
in 1998 and 2003, which showed that high levels
of £ coli bacteria impaired three additional Big
Walnut Creek waterbodies. IDEM then added those
impaired segments to Indiana's 2004 CWA section
303(d) list, bringing the number of impaired seg-
ments in Big Walnut Creek to six (Table 1).
IDEM identified nonpoint source runoff as the main
contributor of £ coli. Key bacteria sources in the
watershed include manure spreading, livestock
pasturing, leaking and failing septic systems, and
wildlife. Point sources of £ coli in the basins include
three wastewater treatment plants and four con-
fined feeding operations. None of these facilities
has had a history of violations, bolstering IDEM's
assertion that nonpoint sources caused the £ coli
impairments.
Project Highlights
IDEM used CWA section 319 funding to support
numerous watershed restoration projects in 1999
through 2007. The projects included targeted best
management practices (Figure 1) as well as out-
reach and coordination with other federal programs
Table 1. Impaired segments in the East and West Forks of Big Walnut Creek
12-digitHUC
name
West Fork Big
Walnut Creek
East Fork Big
Walnut Creek
HUC
051202030104
051202030102
Assessment unit name
Lower West Fork Big Walnut Creek
Edlin Ditch-Grassy Branch
Edlin Ditch-Smith Ditch
Upper West Fork Big Walnut Creek
Ross Creek-East Fork Big Walnut Creek
Lower East Fork Big Walnut Creek
Assessment unit
segments within HUC
INW0314_00
INW0313_00
INW0312_00
INW0311 _00
INW0316_00
INW0317_00
River miles
10.69
7.01
10.29
6.65
6.47
9.29
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that helped to increase the use of agricultural
practices in the impaired watersheds. Funding for
the following projects began in 1999 and contin-
ued through 2006: Putnam County Soil and Water
Conservation District (SWCD) Upper Eel River
Manure Management; Sycamore Trails Resource
Conservation and Development (RC&D) program's
Upper Eel River Manure Management; Sycamore
Trails RC&D Big Walnut, Deer Creek Conservation
Buffers; and Owen County SWCD's CORE 4
Initiative.
Results
In 2007 IDEM assessed the water quality in Big
Walnut Creek, including its headwaters, to deter-
mine if a total maximum daily load was needed
despite the extensive restoration work completed
to date. Results from that survey indicated that
E. coli levels had dropped and meet the water qual-
ity standard (Table 2). As a result, IDEM proposes to
remove all six segments of Big Walnut Creek from
the 2010 CWA section 303(d) list of impaired waters
for £ coli.
Partners and Funding
The Putnam County SWCD worked closely with the
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
regional staff and the affiliated Sycamore Trails
RC&D, along with interested parties in the area
such as DePauw University, local sportsmen and
community groups. IDEM used $163,000 in CWA
section 319 funding for on-the-ground work in the
watersheds, technical outreach and educational
opportunities, specifically creating a
conservation tillage coordinator position
that focused extensively on educating
landowners about sound agricultural
practices from 2002 through 2007. Since
2001, project partners have spent
approximately $928,000 in the Eel River
watershed, approximately $163,000 of
which has been directed specifically
toward the Big Walnut Creek watershed.
Partners also used other funding from
NRCS conservation programs in this
period, although those dollars were not
officially tracked on a watershed basis.
BIG WALNUT CREEK WATERSHED
Best Management Practices
Little Walnut Creek
0512020302
East Fork
I Big Walnut Creek
0512020301
Big Walnut Creek
0512020304
1 Deer Creek
0512020303
N
A
Figure 1. Locations of practices in the Big Walnut Creek water-
shed (dot colors indicate the year restoration efforts began).
Table 2. Bacteria monitoring data (MPN and CFU)a collected for
Big Walnut Creek in 2001 and 2007
Stream name
East Fork Big
Walnut Creek
West Fork Big
Walnut Creek
Water quality
standard
(geometric mean)
< 125 MPN
< 125 MPN
2001 average
geometric mean
results
1016.1 CFU
152.3CFU
2007 average
geometric mean
results
34.45 MPN
27.65 MPN
Percent
reduction
96.6%
81.8%
Colony Forming Units (CFU) and Most Probable Number (MPN) units are
essentially equivalent for comparison purposes.
I
5
PR
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA841-F-09-001I
June 2009
For additional information contact:
Andrew Pelloso
Indiana Department of Environmental Management
317-233-2481
apelloso@idem.in.gov
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