Section 319
NONPOINT SOORCE PROGRAM SUCCESS STORY
Implementing Management Practices and Education Efforts Reduces Turbidity
WatGfbodv ImprOVGd H'9h tumidity levels due in part to practices associated with
1 " wheat, cattle and hog production impaired Oklahoma's Wolf
Creek. As a result, Oklahoma added a 44-mile segment of Wolf Creek to the state's 2002
Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters for turbidity. A large volunteer
monitoring and education effort was initiated in the watershed, combined with implement-
ing best management practices (BMPs) to promote better quality rangeland and pasture-
land. Sediment in the creek declined, prompting Oklahoma to remove Wolf Creek from the
2006 CWA section 303(d) list for turbidity impairment. Wolf Creek now fully attains its fish
and wildlife propagation designated use.
Problem
Wolf Creek (Figure 1) flows through northwestern
Oklahoma on the border with Texas. It is a large
stream—extending 52 miles through Ellis and
Woodward counties in Oklahoma and 40 miles in
Texas in Ochiltree and Lipscomb counties. Erosion
of poorly managed grazing land contributed excess
sediment to Wolf Creek. Water quality assess-
ments in 2002 and 2004 showed that 11 percent
of Wolf Creek's seasonal baseflow water samples
exceeded 50 nephelometric turbidity units (NTU).
As a result, Oklahoma added a 44-mile segment
of Wolf Creek to the 2002 CWA section 303(d) list
for failure to attain its fish and wildlife propagation
designated use because of turbidity impairment.
A stream is considered impaired by turbidity if
10 percent or more of the seasonal baseflow water
samples exceed 50 NTU (based on 5 years of data
before the assessment year).
Project Highlights
Landowners implemented numerous BMPs with
support from Oklahoma's locally led cost-share pro-
gram and Natural Resources Conservation Service
(NRCS) programs such as the Environmental Quality
Incentives Program (EQIP), Conservation Reserve
Program (CRP), Grassland Reserve Program (GRP)
and Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP). In
addition, NRCS initiated an EQIP Local Emphasis
Area project in the Wolf Creek watershed focused
on grazing land. From 2002 to 2006, landowners
improved more than 9,900 acres of pasture and
hay land and 87,467 acres of rangeland through
supplemental planting efforts. They implemented
Figure 1. Wolf Creek flows through portions of
Oklahoma and Texas.
other BMPs, including brush management (12,000
acres), weed management (9,700 acres), nutrient
management plans (90,350 acres), using cover
crops (more than 20,000 acres) and seasonal resi-
due management (995 acres), and implementing
prescribed grazing (46,925 acres). Nearly 67 miles
of cross-fencing have been installed to improve
grazing lands and prevent cattle access to streams.
Approximately 350 alternative water supplies have
been installed to work in concert with cross-fencing
and optimize pasture and range usage to minimize
erosion. Similar BMPs have been installed in the
Texas portion of the watershed.
Landowners installed additional BMPs between
2007 and 2009 that built on the initial grazing
land improvements and helped the turbidity in
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Wolf Creek remain low. The latest round of BMPs
consisted of planting critical areas (6,467 acres),
establishing conservation cover (39,890 acres),
adding conservation crop/cover crop rotation
(30,160 acres), adopting brush management
(135,180 acres), changing to conservation tillage
(58,087 acres), installing 53 miles of fencing,
constructing 29 grade-stabilization structures and
ponds, planting pasture and hay (46,427 acres),
planting range (37,310 acres), implementing pre-
scribed grazing (820,024 acres), adopting nutrient
management plans (70,896 acres), adopting weed
management (43,259 acres) and building 47 miles
of terraces.
In addition, the Oklahoma Conservation
Commission's (OCC's) Blue Thumb education
program has been very active in the Wolf Creek
watershed. In 2002 staff from the Ellis County
Conservation District and the local NRCS staff
participated in a Blue Thumb training session for
local volunteers. After being trained, a local high
school teacher and her students began monitor-
ing Wolf Creek monthly. They submitted results in
monthly reports to the local newspaper to inform
local citizens about the stream and its problems.
Blue Thumb volunteers also educated younger
students about nonpoint source pollution using the
Enviroscape watershed
model and a ground-
water model at least
annually (Figure 2).
Annual mini-academy
training is offered for
students and teachers
at Gage High School to
educate the watershed
residents about how
nonpoint source pollu-
tion can affect water
quality. Active volunteer
monitoring and educa-
tion is continuing in the
watershed.
Figure 2. Gage High School students
demonstrate a groundwater model
during an education event.
Results
OCC conducts monitoring and data analysis as part
of the state's Rotating Basin Monitoring Program.
As a result of the implemented practices and the
accompanying education of landowners, turbid-
ity has decreased in the Wolf Creek watershed.
The 2006 water quality assessment showed that
exceedances of the turbidity standard (50 NTU) had
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Wolf Creek
11% 11%
6% 6%
exceedance exceedance exceedance exceedance
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2002 2004
2006 2008
Assessment Period
Figure 3. Turbidity in Wolf Creek declined between 2002 and
2008. The creek now meets the turbidity water quality standard,
which requires that less than 10 percent of the samples exceed
50NTU.
declined to 6 percent (Figure 3). As a result, the
44-mile segment of Wolf Creek that flows through
Oklahoma now fully attains its fish and wildlife
propagation designated use and was removed from
Oklahoma's CWA section 303(d) list for turbidity
impairment in 2006.
Partners and Funding
OCC's statewide nonpoint source ambient monitor-
ing program is funded using U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) CWA section 319 funds
at an average annual cost of $1 million. Monitoring
costs include personnel, supplies and lab analy-
sis for 19 parameters from samples collected
every 5 weeks at about 100 sites. Approximately
$600,000 in EPA section 319 funds supports state-
wide education, outreach and monitoring efforts
through the Blue Thumb program.
The Oklahoma cost-share program provided $7,543
in state funding for BMPs in the watershed, and
landowners contributed another $12,874. The NRCS
invested approximately $76,443 to implement BMPs
in the Oklahoma portion of the watershed from
2002 to 2006. Implementation has continued, with
$1,019,271 in BMPs committed for 2007 through
2009 using CRP, EQIP, WHIP, GRP, and NRCS
general technical assistance funds. Landowners
provided a significant percentage toward BMP
implementation in the programs as well.
I
5
PR
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
. Office of Water
\ Washington, DC
EPA841-F-10-001H
March 2010
For additional information contact:
Shanon Phillips
Water Quality Division
Oklahoma Conservation Commission
shanon.phillips@conservation.ok.gov
405-522-4500
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