Section 319
NONPOINT SOORGE PROGRAM SOGGESS STORY
Implementing Agricultural Best Management Practices Decreases
Turbidity in Jefferson County's Beaver Creek
Waterbodv ImDrOVed
H'9h turbidity- due in part to Practices associated with wheat
and cattle production, resulted in impairment of Beaver
Creek and placement on Oklahoma's Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired
waters in 2008. Implementation of best management practices (BMPs) to promote better
quality grazing land and cropland decreased sediment loading into the creek. As a result,
Oklahoma removed a 31-mile-long segment of Beaver Creek from the state's 2012 CWA
section 303(d) list for turbidity impairment. Beaver Creek is now in partial attainment of its
fish and wildlife propagation (FWP) designated use.
Problem
Beaver Creek is a 192,444-acre watershed in
Jefferson, Stephens, Cotton, Comanche, and Grady
counties in the southwestern part of Oklahoma
(Figure 1). Land use in the watershed is primarily
pasture for cattle production and wheat crops. Poor
grazing land and cropland management contrib-
uted to excess sedimentation in the watershed. In
the 2008 water quality assessment, monitoring
showed that 33 percent of Beaver Creek's seasonal
baseflow water samples exceeded 50 nephelomet-
ric 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 5 years of data before the assessment
year). On the basis of these assessment results,
Oklahoma added the entire length of Beaver Creek
(OK311200000030 _ 00) to the 2008 and subsequent
CWA section 303(d) lists for nonattainment of the
FWP designated use due to turbidity impairment.
Monitoring Site
Beaver Creek Watershed
Project Highlights
Landowners implemented a large number of
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) Environmental Quality
Incentives Program (EQIP), the Wildlife Habitat
Incentive Program (WHIP), general conservation
technical assistance program, and Conservation
Stewardship Program (CSP). From 2008 to 2011,
landowners in the watershed reduced the potential
for erosion from cropland by implementing conserva-
Figure 1. The Beaver Creek watershed is in southern Oklahoma.
tion crop rotations and cover crops on 3,633 acres
and adopting conservation tillage (e.g., no-till, strip-till,
and mulch-till) methods on 2,213 acres. Additionally,
terraces were constructed, and at least 28 diversions,
25 grassed waterways, and 67 grade stabilization
structures were installed on cropland areas.
To address erosion from grazing lands, prescribed
grazing was implemented on 1,911 acres, with
32,919 linear feet of cross-fencing installed to
improve grazing land quality and over 20 tanks and
200 ponds constructed for alternative livestock
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Figure 2. Implementing BMPs helped to restore
Beaver Creek.
water supply. Nine acres of erosion-susceptible
areas received heavy-use protection to reduce
sediment runoff. A great deal of brush manage-
ment helped to promote healthy grazing lands, and
forage/biomass planting occurred on 296 acres,
trees and shrubs were planted on 25 acres, and
620 acres of critical, erosive land was revegetated.
2,256 acres of pest (weed) management helped
to improve the quality of grazing lands and upland
wildlife habitat management was instituted on 65
acres. Nutrient management plans were adopted on
1,355 acres.
Continuing BMP implementation will increase the
potential for further water quality improvements
in the area. In 2012, additional BMPs implemented
include conservation crop rotation on 219 acres,
conservation tillage on 1,398 acres, prescribed
grazing on 1,803 acres, more than 6,000 linear
feet of fencing, 72 ponds, 10 water tanks, 28 acres
of forage/biomass planting, 361 acres of weed
management, nutrient management for 165 acres,
four grade stabilization structures, five terraces, and
nine cropland diversions.
Results
The OCC's Rotating Basin Monitoring Program,
a statewide nonpoint source ambient monitoring
program, documented improved water quality in
Beaver Creek due to landowners implementing
BMPs (Figure 2). In the 2008 assessment, 33 per-
cent of seasonal base flow water samples exceed-
Beaver Creek
120
>> 80
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!
o 40
LL.
0)
33% exceedance
0% exceedance
1 I
2008 2012
Assessment Year
Figure 3. Monitoring data show that turbidity levels
in Beaver Creek have declined.
ed the turbidity criteria of 50 NTU. This exceedance
was reduced to zero percent in the 2012 assess-
ment (Figure 3). Accordingly, Beaver Creek has
been removed from Oklahoma's 2012 CWA section
303(d) list for turbidity impairment and is now in
partial attainment of the FWP designated use.
Partners and Funding
The OCC's Rotating Basin Monitoring Program is
supported by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
CWA section 319 funds at an average 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 sam-
ples are also collected. Approximately $600,000
in CWA section 319 funding supports statewide
education, outreach, and monitoring efforts through
the OCC's Blue Thumb program.
The Oklahoma cost-share program provided
$46,869 in state funding from 2008-2011 for BMP
implementation in this watershed through the
Stephens County and Jefferson County conserva-
tion districts; landowners contributed $30,359
through this program. The NRCS spent approxi-
mately $9.5 million for implementation of BMPs
in the watershed from 2008 to 2011 through their
EQIP, CSP, WHIP, and general technical assistance
funds and another $1.8 million in 2012. Landowners
provided a significant percentage of funding toward
BMP implementation in these programs as well.
VSSy
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA841-F-14-0010
April 2014
For additional information contact:
Shanon Phillips
Oklahoma Conservation Commission
405-522-4500 • shanon.phillips@conservation.ok.gov
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