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Section 319
NONPOINT SOURCE PROGRAM SUCCESS STORY
Implementing Agricultural Best Management Practices Reduced Bacteria
Levels in Coursey Pond
Wotprhnrlv Imnrnx/prl Nonpoint source pollution from agricultural animal operations
" 1""" ' - ' >'"' ' - and septic systems caused elevated bacteria levels in
Delaware's Coursey Pond. As a result, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and
Environmental Control (DNREC) added Coursey Pond to Delaware's Clean Water Act (CWA)
section 303(d) list in 2002 for bacteria impairment. Project partners provided technical
and financial assistance to farmers to encourage the implementation of agricultural
best management practices (BMPs) such as nutrient management planning, cover crop
implementation and the installation of structural BMPs. Water quality improved as a result
of these restoration activities, enabling DNREC to remove Coursey Pond from the 2004
impaired waters list for bacteria.
Problem
Delaware's Coursey Pond, in southeast Kent
County, is a 58-acre pond draining to the Murderkill
River, a tributary to Delaware Bay. The Murderkill
River basin is bounded on the south by the
Mispillion watershed, on the east by the Delaware
Bay, and on the north and west by the St. Jones
River and Marshyhope Creek watersheds (Figure 1).
The headwaters of the Murderkill River begins
just west of Felton and flow generally eastward,
towards Bowers Beach, with the lower 10.5-mile
portion of the river influenced by tides. Coursey
Pond, Killens Pond, McColley's Pond, McGinnis
Pond and Andrews Lake all flow into the Murderkill
River.
Land use composition in the Coursey Pond water-
shed is similar to the encompassing 68,000-acre
Murderkill watershed: 55 percent agriculture, 17
percent wetlands, 14 percent urban and 11 percent
forest. The outfall of the pond flows to a tributary
of the main stem Murderkill River. A rare species of
naturally occurring bald cypress trees and signifi-
cant remaining populations of Atlantic White Cedar
are also found in the Coursey Pond watershed.
For freshwater primary contact recreation,
Delaware's water quality standard for bacteria
allows for a geometric mean of 100 colonies (col)
Legend
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Figure 1. The Murderkill River watershed is in central Delaware.
Coursey Pond is in the center of the watershed.
of Enterococcus bacteria per 100 milliliters (mL) of
water. Monthly data collected from September 1996
through August 2001 indicated that Coursey Pond
exceeded the water quality standard for bacteria.
Therefore, DNREC placed Coursey Pond (segment
DE220-L03 _ 00) on the CWA section 303(d) list for
high bacteria counts in 2002. Likely contributors to
the degraded water quality include agriculture opera-
tions, lawn care products and leaking septic systems.
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Project Highlights
Results
The Kent County Conservation District (KCD) offers
technical assistance to the farming community by
providing nutrient management planning, cost-
share funding for agricultural BMPs, and partnering
with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's)
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
to develop conservation plans and Environmental
Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) contracts.
The Delaware Nonpoint Source (NPS) Program
(within DNREC) used CWA section 319 funding to
support two KCD planners. With technical assis-
tance provided by the planners, farmers installed
the following agricultural BMPs from 2002 to 2004:
nine manure storage structures, eight dead-bird
composters, six heavy use protection areas and
732 acres of cover crops. Mandatory state regula-
tions for nutrient management planning, septic
system pump-outs, concentrated animal feeding
operations and the conversion of onsite wastewa-
ter systems to central systems have also helped
decrease bacteria in runoff to Coursey Pond.
In addition, practices installed through the Delaware
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program
(CREP) after 2004 contributed to maintaining the
delisting of the waterbody. This included 14 acres
of grass buffers and 31.2 acres of hardwood trees
which have improved water quality within the
Coursey Pond watershed. Although no total maxi-
mum daily load (TMDL) was developed for bacteria
before the Coursey Pond delisting (a watershed-
wide bacteria TMDL was developed in 2006), ongo-
ing TMDL implementation efforts taken to address
nutrients and oxygen helped reduce bacteria levels
throughout the watershed.
The General Assessment Monitoring Network
provides for routine water quality monitoring of
surface waters throughout Delaware. Data from
this network showed that Coursey Pond attained
Delaware's standards for bacteria leading up to
the 2004 reporting period based on data from
September 1998 through August 2003. The
improvement has been maintained after the delist-
ing. Sampling data noted in the state's 2012 CWA
section 305(b) report showed that Coursey Pond
had a geometric mean of 44 col/100 mL bacteria,
which meets the Delaware's freshwater bacteria
water quality standard. Monitoring will be ongoing
in Coursey Pond to ensure that the pond continues
to meet water quality standards.
Partners and Funding
The successful removal of the bacteria impairment
for Coursey Pond was the result of collabora-
tion between the KCD, the USDA NRCS, USDA
Farm Service Agency, Delaware Department
of Agriculture, and the Delaware NPS Program.
Federal CWA section 319 funds supported BMP
implementation costs in the Coursey Pond water-
shed. Additional funding was provided through
the USDA EQIP and CREP programs, the Delaware
Conservation Cost Share program and KCD.
Between 2002 and 2004 the project was supported
by more than $470,000, which included CWA sec-
tion 319 funds (approximately one-third of total) and
EQIP and state cost share funds (remainder of total).
KCD provided $32,940 in funding for 732 acres of
cover crop over 5 years. The 14 acres of CREP grass
buffers and hardwood plantings were installed at
a total cost of $17,460. To assist in CREP program
development and implementation, the NPS Program
created a full-time CWA section 319-funded
Delaware CREP Program Coordinator position.
UJ
(9
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA841-F-15-001EE
August 2015
For additional information contact:
Bob Palmer
Delaware DNREC
Nonpoint Source Program
302-739-9922 • robert.palmer@state.de.us
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