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Section 319
NDNPDINT SOURCE PROGRAM SOGGESS STORY
Whitegrass Creek Experiences Reduction in Turbidity After Agricultural
Best Management Practice Implementation
Waterbody Improved
High turbidity, due in part to practices associated with
cattle production, resulted in impairment of Whitegrass
Creek and placement on Oklahoma's Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list in
2008. Implementation of best management practices (BMPs) to promote better quality
grazing land decreased sediment loading into the creek. As a result, the entire 30-mile
length of Whitegrass Creek was removed from Oklahoma's 2012 CWA 303(d) list for
turbidity impairment. Whitegrass Creek is now in partial attainment of its fish and wildlife
propagation designated use.
Problem
Whitegrass Creek is in Bryan and Choctaw counties
in southern Oklahoma. Land use in the 40,878-acre
watershed is primarily rangeland and pasture
for cattle production. Poor grazing land manage-
ment contributed to excess sedimentation in the
watershed. In the 2008 water quality assessment,
monitoring showed that 18 percent of Whitegrass
Creek's seasonal base flow water samples exceed-
ed 50 nephelometric turbidity units (NTU). A stream
is considered impaired by turbidity if more than
10 percent of the seasonal base flow water samples
exceed 50 NTU (based on five years of data before
the assessment year). On the basis of these assess-
ment results, Oklahoma added the entire 30-mile-
long Whitegrass Creek (OK410400010210 _ 00) to
the 2008 CWA section 303(d) list for nonattainment
of the fish and wildlife propagation designated use
due to turbidity impairment.
Whitegrass Creek Watershed
Project Highlights
Landowners implemented BMPs with assistance
from Oklahoma's locally led cost-share program and
through the local U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
General Conservation Technical Assistance
Program, Conservation Reserve Program
(CRP), Conservation Stewardship Program and
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).
From 2008 to 2011, landowners improved pasture
condition with more than 3,000 acres of prescribed/
Figure 1. The Whitegrass Creek watershed is in southern
Oklahoma.
rotational grazing, installation of two ponds for alter-
native water sources, 18,076 linear feet of fencing,
958 acres of nutrient management, 1,748 acres of
integrated pest management, 55 acres of supple-
mental planting and 1,948 acres of forage harvest
management. Erosion potential was reduced with
the installation of two grade stabilization struc-
tures, and 43 acres of riparian forest buffer were
established. Work continues in the watershed, with
an additional two grade stabilization structures
installed in 2013, riparian buffer maintenance and
104 acres of supplemental planting.
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Results
The Oklahoma Conservation Commission's
Rotating Basin Monitoring Program, a statewide
nonpoint source ambient monitoring program,
documented improved water quality in Whitegrass
Creek due to landowners implementing BMPs.
In the 2008 assessment, 18 percent of seasonal
base flow water samples exceeded the turbidity
criteria of 50 NTU. This exceedance was reduced
to zero percent in 2012, and Whitegrass Creek was
removed from Oklahoma's CWA section 303(d) list
for turbidity impairment. Whitegrass Creek is now
in partial attainment of the fish and wildlife propaga-
tion designated use.
Partners and Funding
The Rotating Basin Monitoring Program is sup-
ported by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's CWA section 319 program at an aver-
age annual cost of $1 million. Monitoring costs
include personnel, supplies and lab analyses for
18 parameters from samples collected every 5
weeks at about 100 sites. In-stream habitat, fish
and macroinvertebrate samples are also collected.
Approximately $600,000 in CWA section 319 fund-
ing supports statewide education, outreach and
monitoring efforts through the Blue Thumb pro-
gram. The Oklahoma cost-share program provided
approximately $2,700 in state funding for BMPs in
Whitegrass Creek
120-
100-
15
,= 60
O
H 40
as
00 20
0-
18% exceed a nee
0% exceedance
2008 2012
Assessment Year
Figure 2. Monitoring data indicate that base flow turbidity levels
in Whitegrass Creek have declined.
this watershed through the Kiamichi Conservation
District. NRCS spent approximately $1.8 million for
implementation of BMPs in Bryan and Choctaw
counties from 2008 to 2011. An additional $1.1 mil-
lion was spent from 2012 to 2013 to maintain these
practices and continue to promote good grazing
land management. Landowners provided a signifi-
cant percentage of funding toward BMP implemen-
tation in these programs as well.
UJ
(9
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA841-F-14-001EEE
September 2014
For additional information contact:
Shanon Phillips
Oklahoma Conservation Commission
405-522-4500 • shanon.phillips@conservation.ok.gov
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