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Section 319
NONPIINT SOURCE PRBGBAM SOECESS STORY
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Best Management Practices Improve Water Quality in the
Upper Little Pee Dee River
Waterbodv Improved A9ricultural actlvities and malfunctioning septic systems
contributed nonpoint source pollution to South Carolina's
Upper Little Pee Dee River. Fecal coliform levels violated the state's water quality
standard, and, as a result, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental
Control (SCDHEC) added the waterbody to the state's Clean Water Act (CWA) section
303(d) list of impaired waters in 2002. Stakeholders implemented best management
practices (BMPs) in the watershed, improving water quality and prompting SCDHEC to
remove the Upper Little Pee Dee River from the state's list of impaired waters in 2008.
Problem
The 12.6-mi!e-long Upper Little Pee Dee River is in
the Little Pee Dee watershed of South Carolina's
Pee Dee River Basin. The Upper Little Pee Dee
watershed is over 107 square miles in size (Figure
1). Most of the watershed's land use is agricultural
(43 percent) and forested (54 percent).
Data collected by SCDHEC at monitoring station
PD-029E: (located on the Upper Little Pee Dee
River at the Route 23 bridge, northwest of the town
of Dillon) indicated that the Upper Little Pee Dee
River's primary contact designated use was partially
or not supported due to elevated fecal coliform
bacteria levels. The river failed to meet South
Carolina's water quality standard for fecal coliform,
which requires that no more than 10 percent of the
total samples exceed 400 colony-forming units per
100 milliliters (cfu/100 mL). On the basis of these
data, the Upper Little Pee Dee River was added to
South Carolina's CWA section 303(d) list of Impaired
waters in 2002 for excessive concentrations of
fecal coliform bacteria. A total maximum daily load
(TMDL) was developed in 2005 for fecal coliform
bacteria. The TMDL identified grazing livestock,
land application of poultry litter, wildlife, and mal-
functioning septic systems as the most significant
sources of pollution.
Project Highlights
Staff from the Pee Dee Resource Conservation
and Development Council (Pee Dee RC&D), local
soil and water conservation districts (SWCDs),
Figure 1 I he Upper Little Pee Dee River watershed is in
northeastern South Carolina.
and the South Carolina Department of Natural
Resources (SCDNR) worked collaboratively to
restore the Upper Little Pee Dee River. Project
partners engaged in a number of educational and
outreach activities, including speaking to people
about agricultural activities and septic tank issues,
Upper Little Pee Dee River
Watershed
0	25 50	100 Miles
	1	I	I	I	I	I	I	I	I

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distributing septic tank repair information door to
door, and running public awareness advertisements
in the local newspaper. These outreach efforts led
to BMP implementation on two farms and the repair
of 12 septic systems. Within the watershed, a total
of 14 farms received BMP installation assistance
and 25 septic systems were repaired or replaced.
CWA section 319 grant funding supported the con-
struction of five alternate water sources, 16,709 feet
of fencing, 4,624 acres of nutrient management,
24 onsite wastewater treatment systems, 8.9 acres
of pasture and hayland planting, and 24,484 feet of
streambank and shoreline protection.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS),
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP),
funded a suite of BMPs that included 25,000 square
feet of heavy-use area protection, 8,643 acres of
nutrient management, the construction of one
well, 235 acres of pasture planting, 13,333 feet of
pipeline, 5,033 acres of cover crop, 18,896 feet of
fencing, 182 acres of prescribed grazing, one waste
storage facility, and 19 watering facilities.
Results
Data from station PD-029E continued to be col-
lected during and afterTMDL implementation (2005
until 2009). Water quality monitoring data assessed
in 2008 indicated that 5 percent of the samples col-
lected were above 400 cfu/100 mL of fecal coliform.
Accordingly, the Upper Little Pee Dee River met
South Carolina's water quality standard, which
requires that no more than 10 percent of samples
exceed 400 cfu /100 mL during any 30-day period.
On the basis of these data, SCDHEC removed the
Upper Little Pee Dee River from the state's list of
impaired waters in 2008 (Figure 2).
Table 1 lists the water quality assessments for the
2002-2012 CWA section 303(d) listing cycles, further
iiiustrating post-project water quality improvements.
In total, implementation efforts reduced pollutant
loadings of nitrogen (by 24,525.70 pounds), phospho-
rus (by 11,682 pounds), sediment (by 12,655.70 tons),
and fecal coliform (by 3.5000E+12 cfu).
Partners and Funding
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and
SCDHEC provided $300,000 in CWA section 319
Figure 2. The Upper Little Pee Dee River now
complies with water quality standards and has
been removed from the state's list of impaired
waters for fecal coliform bacteria.
Table 1. SCDHEC Water Quality
Assessments for 303(d) Listing Cycles 2002-
2012: Fecal Coliform Bacteria at Monitoring
Station PD-029E (Upper Little Pee Dee River)
Year
Percent of samples exceeding
400 cfu/100 mL1
2002
11%
2004
20%
2006
11%
2008
5%
2010
7%
2012
7%
1 Values that fall under 10% exceedance (in bold) meet the
water quality standard.
funding and oversaw the project. The Pee Dee RC&D
provided overall project management and worked
with the Dillon SWCD and NRCS, Marlboro SWCD
and NRCS, and SCDNR to support the development
and implementation of the TMDL, manage projects,
and provide assistance and information related
to fecal coliform bacteria loading into the Upper
Little Pee Dee (providing $66,000 through in-kind
services). Landowners in the watershed contributed
approximately $197,000 in cash and in-kind services
to implement BMPs. NRCS provided approximately
$536,080 in 50 percent cost-share EGiP funding and
provided technical design expertise and oversight
(beyond CWA section 319 project participation),

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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA 841-F-14-001NN
July 2014
For additional information contact:
Delaney Faircloth
South Carolina Department of Health and
Environmental Control
803-898-1904 • fairclds@dhec.sc.gov

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