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NOHPOIHT SIUBCE SUCCESS STORY
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Turbidity Levels in Salt Creek (Osage County) are Reduced Through
Voluntary Agricultural Conservation Programs
Waterbody Improved Elevated turbiditv levels' contributed by grazing and hay
production, resulted in the impairment of Salt Creek and
placement on Oklahoma's Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters in 2006.
implementation of conservation practice systems (CPs) promoted better quality grazing lands and
decreased turbidity levels in the creek. As a result, Salt Creek was removed from Oklahoma's 2010
CWA section 303(d) list for turbidity. Salt Creek now fully supports its fish and wildlife protection
(FWP) designated use.
Problem
Salt Creek is a 61-mile stream that flows through
Osage County before discharging to the Arkansas
River (Figure 1). Salt Creek flows through the Flint
Hills Ecoregion and is comprised of tallgrass prairie on
rolling hills with relatively steep, narrow valleys com-
posed of shale and cherty limestone with rocky soils.
Land use in the 185,000-acre watershed is primarily
grasslands (85 percent) for beef cattle and hay produc-
tion. About 6 percent of the watershed is developed
land (primarily for highways and roads), 2 percent is
forested, and less than 4 percent is cropland.
Grazing and hayland management contributed to
excess turbidity in Salt Creek. The lower segment
of Salt Creek (17.29 miles) was listed as impaired
for turbidity in 2006 when 22 percent of assessed
baseflow turbidity samples violated Oklahoma's water
quality standards. An Oklahoma stream is considered
to violate the turbidity standard when more than
10 percent of baseflow samples are higher than 50
Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU). On the basis of
these assessment results, Oklahoma added the lower
segment of Salt Creek (OK621200040010_00) to the
2004 CWA section 303(d) list for nonattainment of the
FWP designated beneficial use.
Story Highlights
Landowners in the watershed worked with the Osage
County Conservation District, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service
(NRCS), and the Oklahoma Conservation Commission
(OCC) to implement CPs through Oklahoma NRCS's
Figure L Salt Creek is in Osage County, Oklahoma.
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and
general conservation technical assistance program,
and through the OCC's Locally Led Cost Share Program
(LLCP), From 2002 to 2015, landowners improved
many acres of pasture and hay meadows, which
reduced runoff of sediment and other pollutants by
decreasing erosion and better utilizing available graz-
ing lands (Table 1).
Results
The OCC documented improved water quality in Salt
Creek through its statewide nonpoint source Rotating
Basin Ambient Monitoring Program. Improvements
were due to landowners implementing CPs. The
installed practices worked to decrease erosion and
Monitoring Site
Salt Creek Streams
Salt Creek Tributaries
	 Salt Creek Delisted Segment
Salt Creek
Salt Creek Watershed

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Table 1. CPs installed in the Salt Creek watershed.
Practice name
Amount installed
Upland wildlife habitat management
2,589 acres
Use exclusion
89 acres
Prescribed burning
24,525 acres
Pest management
26,799 acres
Forage harvest management
81 acres
Conservation crop rotation
641 acres
Prescribed grazing
43,047 acres
Conservation tillage
1,731 acres
Pond
22
Pasture and hayland planting
644 acres
Salt Creek Turbidity
18	6	0
1 i !
reduce turbidity. Monitoring data compiled for the
2006 integrated report had showed excessive turbid-
ity in Salt Creek (22 percent of baseflow samples had
exceeded the state standard of 50 NTU). By 2010,
turbidity values had decreased such that fewer than
10 percent of samples exceeded 50 NTU. This decreas-
ing trend continues through the 2018 assessment
(Figure 2). On the basis of these data, Salt Creek was
removed from the Oklahoma CWA section 303(d) list
for turbidity in 2010. Salt Creek is now in full support
of Its FWP beneficial use (Figure 3).
Partners and Funding
The OCC monitoring program is supported by U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) CWA section
319 funding at an average annual statewide cost of
$1 million. Approximately $500,000 in EPA 319 funds
support statewide water quality educational efforts
through Blue Thumb. Approximately $130,000 of these
federal and state matching funds have been devoted
to Salt Creek. Working in partnership with local
conservation districts, NRCS supplied approximately
$385,000 for implementation of CPs in the water-
shed through NRCS EQIP. The LLCP provided $16,084
matched by $30,436 from landowners. Many practices
were funded by landowners based on recommenda-
tions through NRCS general technical assistance and
conservation planning.
Figure 2. Turbidity decreased in Salt Creek as producers
improved pasture management.
Figure 3. Salt Creek water quality has improved.
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©
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA 841-F-18-Q01L
September 2018
For additional information contact:
Shanon Phillips
Oklahoma Conservation Commission
405-522-4728 • shanon.phillips@conservation.ok.gov

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