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Section 319
NONPOINT SOURCE PROGRAM SOCGESS STORY
Implementing Agricultural and Recreational Best Management Practices
Restores Rudd Pond
\A/citprhnH\/ Imnrnx/prl Phosphorus and sediment runoff from agricultural activities
and other nonpoint sources impaired the primary contact
recreation use in Rudd Pond, a 70-acre waterbody in Dutchess County, New York. As a
result, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) added
the pond to the state's 1998 Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters.
The Dutchess County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) worked with farmers to
install agricultural best management practices (BMPs) and worked with town and county
officials to reduce soil erosion and nutrient losses from transportation and recreational
activities. Water quality improvements led to the removal of Rudd Pond from New York's
impaired waters list in 2010.
Problem
Rudd Pond, a 70-acre waterbody in the town of
North East, is one of the largest open waterbodies
in the Tenmile River watershed (Figure 1). It has
1.9 miles of shoreline and reaches a maximum depth
of 14 feet. Rudd Pond supports a variety of popular
fish species, including largemouth bass, chain
pickerel, bluegills, black crappie and yellow perch.
The pond is in eastern Dutchess County in an area of
southeastern New York known as the Harlem Valley.
The Tenmile River flows into the Housatonic River in
Connecticut. The prominent land uses in the vicinity
of Rudd Pond include agriculture, forestry, pasture,
state park recreational land (the eastern shoreline of
Rudd Pond is included within theTaconic State Park),
transportation and low-density residential.
Annual surface water sampling conducted in Rudd
Pond in the 1990s indicated that total phosphorus
(TP) concentrations, which ranged between 10 and
30 parts per billion (ppb), sometimes violated the
state's water quality standard, 20 ppb TP. As a
result, NYSDEC added Rudd Pond to New York's
impaired waters list in 1998 because the high levels
of nutrients (including TP) adversely affected the
primary contact recreation use. NYSDEC suspected
that the TP was being delivered to Rudd Pond
through runoff containing sediment and nutrients
from agricultural areas, road drainage ditches,
recreational trails and other sources.
Figure 1. New York's Rudd Pond serves as a recreational resource
for Duchess County.
Project Highlights
Between 1999 and 2004, the Dutchess County
SWCD addressed the nutrient impairment through
a three-tiered effort to reduce soil erosion and
nutrient losses from three significant land uses in
the watershed—agriculture, transportation and
recreation. SWCD partnered with local property
owners, town and county highway departments,
and the state's Office of Parks and Recreation.
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The Dutchess County SWCD coordinated with the
state's Agricultural Environmental Management
(AEM) Program to provide technical assistance
and farm practice implementation guidance to the
single significant farm operator in the watershed.
The SWCD helped the farm operator to develop a
nutrient management plan and implement conser-
vation tillage practices, which reduced soil erosion
and nutrient runoff by limiting soil disturbance.
The SWCD also worked with the farm operator to
integrate improvements in crop residue manage-
ment, thereby further reducing soil disturbance and
nutrient loss.
The SWCD worked with town and county high-
way officials near Rudd Pond to adopt improved
methods of road drainage ditch maintenance and
provided training on proper drainage ditch sizing,
shaping and stabilization to reduce sediment loss.
In addition, a number of erosion control BMPs,
including the seeding of banks and application of
erosion control fabric, were implemented in the
surrounding area.
Finally, the SWCD trained Taconic State Park
officials on how to apply erosion and sediment
control practices in trail maintenance and other
related construction activities, resulting in reduced
sediment loading to Rudd Pond from recreational
activities. The SWCD continues to host training and
outreach activities in the Tenmile River watershed
and in other watersheds throughout the county.
Results
The SWCD's training and outreach activities resulted
in increased BMP implementation, which mitigated
soil erosion/sedimentation and nutrient loss from
the agriculture, transportation and recreation land
uses surrounding Rudd Pond. Annual water quality
samples collected from 2004 through 2009 showed
that the average TP concentration ranged from 15 to
17 ppb in Rudd Pond, indicating consistent compli-
ance with the state's TP water quality standard of
20 ppb. On the basis of these data, DEC removed
Rudd Pond from the CWA section 303(d) list of
impaired waters in 2010.
Partners and Funding
The AEM projects that contributed to the Rudd Pond
successes are part of a comprehensive partnership
among local, regional and state agencies along with
citizen and farmer groups. The SWCD utilized AEM
funding provided through the State Environmental
Protection Fund to conduct farm assessments and
develop farm plans in the Rudd Pond watershed.
These state AEM funds were used as part of the
state's CWA section 319 matching fund. The BMPs
employed in the various nonpoint source control
activities in the Rudd Pond Watershed are consistent
with the state nonpoint source program's approved
Management Practices Catalogue for Nonpoint
Source Pollution Prevention and Water Quality
Protection in New York State.
Additional support for implementing farm practices
to reduce sediment and nutrient losses was pro-
vided by Dutchess County and by an Environmental
Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) contract through
the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Funding to support the training and technical
assistance activities of the SWCD for reducing soil
erosion and sediment loads from highway and recre-
ational trail maintenance was provided by Dutchess
County. Implementation costs for trail improvements
to reduce soil erosion and sediment loads to Rudd
Pond were provided by the New York State Office
of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
Implementation costs for improvements in road
drainage ditch maintenance were provided by
Dutchess County and the Town of North East.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA841-F-11-001FF
September 2011
For additional information contact:
Don Tuxill
New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation
518-402-8168 • detuxill@gw.dec.state.ny.us
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