Section 319
NONPOINT SOURCE PROGRAM SOCCESF STORY
Targeting Animal Waste Best Management Practices Improves Water Quality
Waterbody Improved
™'Uta"tS in
runoff impaired water quality in
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Kentucky s Fleming Creek and many of its tributaries. The
Kentucky Division of Water (KDOW) added numerous watershed segments to Kentucky's
Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters in 1994 because of pathogens
or nutrients and organic enrichment/low dissolved oxygen. Using approximately $3.6 million
in state and federal financial support, watershed partners implemented numerous
restoration activities, including targeted agricultural best management practices (BMPs).
While much of the watershed still does not fully support its primary contact recreation
use, habitat and biological monitoring indicate that a 4.8-mile segment of Fleming Creek
now fully supports its designated use of warm water aquatic habitat. As a result, KDOW
removed the segment from Kentucky's 2006 CWA section 303(d) list of impaired waters.
Problem
North For* Licking Rfv&r. near Ml, Olivet
'
The Fleming Creek watershed is in the beautiful
rolling farmland of Fleming County in northeastern
Kentucky. Fleming Creek, a tributary of the Licking
River, is 39 miles long and drains an area of 61,670
acres (95 square miles) (see Figure 1). The water-
shed includes the mainstem of Fleming Creek and
11 tributaries. A total of 75.2 stream miles in the
watershed did not meet water quality standards for
primary contact recreation, and 53.7 stream miles
did not meet water quality standards for warm
water aquatic habitat. KDOW considers agricultural
runoff to be the primary source of impairment
because of the historically high concentration of
dairy operations along the creeks. KDOW devel-
oped a total maximum daily load for pathogens in
Fleming Creek in 2001.
Project Highlights
In 1989 a group of local landowners initiated
the Fleming Creek Watershed Nonpoint Source
Demonstration Project. The landowners' sustained
commitment to improving water quality has gener-
ated numerous restoration efforts throughout the
watershed.
From 1992 through 1994, KDOW biologists gath-
ered physicochemical, bacteriological and biologi-
cal data designed to target animal waste pollution
Figure 1. Fleming Creek is a tributary of northeast
Kentucky's Licking River watershed.
Source: Kentucky's Watershed Viewer
(http://eppcrnaps.ky.gov/website/watershed/)
problems in the watershed and to establish baseline
water quality conditions. Landowners benefitted
from education efforts and implemented numerous
BMPs in the watershed between 1992 and 1997
using funds from Kentucky agricultural cost-share
program, the CWA section 319 program and several
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs.
However, comparison of pre- and post-BMP data
collected in 1999 indicate that water quality had not
significantly improved.
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Figure 2. Farmers keep cows out of Fleming Creek by
installing alternative water sources such as this one.
Watershed partners then refined their efforts.
Using an adaptive management approach, partners
targeted agricultural BMPs in two subwatersheds—
Allison Creek (8.6 square miles) and Wilson Run
(6.75 square miles)—to maximize results. The BMPs
included approximately 80 animal waste facilities,
30 miles of riparian fencing and more than 200
alternative watering facilities (Figure 2).
The Fleming County Conservation District and the
USDA Natural Resources and Conservation Service
provided oversight and technical assistance for
planning, installing, operating and maintaining
BMPs. A CWA section 319 grant funded a full-time
watershed coordinator. One-on-one outreach and
assistance to local landowners, along with targeting
of smaller subwatersheds, has helped to reduce
pollutant loadings to the creeks.
Results
KDOW monitored water quality in 2004 to assess
pathogen and biological recovery in the Fleming
Creek watershed. Pathogen data analysis indicates
a trend of increasing recovery for Allison Creek
and Wilson Run, as well as downstream reaches
of Fleming Creek. Because of this success, two
additional tributaries, Flat Run (3 square miles) and
Cassidy Creek (3.9 square miles), have been selected
fortargeted BMP implementation. Landowner
participation is predicted to be high. Watershed
partners are developing a watershed plan to address
both agricultural and nonagricultural land uses in a
third subwatershed, Town Branch (6 square miles),
which contains the city of Flemingsburg.
While the much of the watershed still does not fully
support its primary contact recreation use, habitat
and biological monitoring indicate that a 4.8-mile
segment of Fleming Creek now fully supports its
designated use of warm water aquatic habitat.
In-situ physicochemical data and macroinvertebrate
community data show that the segment meets
water quality standards. Additionally, dissolved
oxygen levels were above the 5 milligrams per liter
standard, and the biological community scored a
68.5, which is considered good. On the basis of
these data, KDOW removed the 4.8-mile segment
of Fleming Creek from the state's 2006 CWA sec-
tion 303(d) list of impaired waters.
Partners and Funding
Project partners include agricultural producers,
Fleming County Conservation District Board
of Supervisors; Fleming County Conservation
District; Kentucky Division of Conservation; KDOW;
Redwing Ecological Services, Inc.; the University
of Kentucky's Cooperative Extensive Service and
Department of Agronomy; and the Community
Farm Alliance.
Federal financial assistance through the CWA sec-
tion 319 Nonpoint Source Implementation Grants
supported targeted BMP efforts in the watershed.
Between 1991 and 2007, watershed partners spent
more than $1.6 million and contributed more than
$970,000 in nonfederal match contributions. The
Kentucky Soil Erosion and Water Quality Cost Share
Program (state cost-share) provided cost-share
assistance to landowners to install agricultural
BMPs worth $2,134,884 in the watershed. The
state cost-share program provided $1,408,288, and
landowners provided another $726,595 in cash pay-
ments or in-kind labor.
Several USDA programs supported landowner's
efforts to install agricultural BMPs including the
Agricultural Conservation Program, Water Quality
Special Project, Water Quality Incentive Program,
Environmental Quality Incentive Program and
Conservation Reserve Program. Since 1992 more
than $1.2 million in federal financial support from
USDA has been targeted to the Fleming Creek
watershed for implementing agricultural BMPs.
I
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA841-F-09-001U
August 2009
For additional information contact:
Paulette Akers
Kentucky Division of Water
502-564-3410 • Paulette.Akers@ky.gov
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