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m 1 NONPOINT SOURCE SUCCESS STURY
Conservation Practices Reduce Turbidity in the Glover River
Waterbody I m proved High turbidity levels resulted in the impairment of the Glover
River and placement on Oklahoma's Clean Water Act (CWA)
section 303(d) list of impaired waters in 2006 for turbidity. Pollution from grazing lands and forest
management practices contributed to this impairment. Implementing conservation practice systems
(CPs) to promote better pasture and forest management decreased turbidity levels in the creek. As
a result, Oklahoma removed the Glover River from its 2014 CWA section 303(d) list for turbidity. The
Glover River partially supports its fish and wildlife propagation (FWP) beneficial use,
Problem
The Glover River is a 33.95-mile stream that flows
through McCurtain and Pushmataha counties before
flowing into the Little River (Figure 1). Land use in
the 220,000-acre (ac) watershed is about 80 percent
deciduous and evergreen forests and about 13 percent
grazing lands. The watershed has over 1,300 ac of
bottomland hardwood and emergent wetlands. There
is some poultry production as well. Challenges with
forest and grazing lands management contributed
to listing the river as impaired for turbidity in 2006
when 20 percent of individual samples violated the
turbidity criteria for cool water aquatic community.
The FWP designated use is considered impaired if
10 percent or more of baseflow samples are greater
than 10 Nephelometric turbidity units (NTU). Based
on these results, Oklahoma added the Glover River
(C)K410210080010_00) to the 2006 CWA section
303(d) list for nonattainment of its FWP designated
beneficial use.
Story Highlights
Landowners in the watershed worked with the Little
River and Pushmataha County conservation dis-
tricts, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the Oklahoma
Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry
(ODAFF), and the Oklahoma Conservation Commission
(OCC) to implement CPs through Oklahoma NRCS's
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and
general conservation technical assistance program,
and Oklahoma's Locally Led Cost Share Program
(LLCP). CPs installed between 2004 and 2017 focused
on reducing erosion and pollutant runoff from forest
and grazing lands in the watershed (Table 1). ODAFF
' .
A *

Site
4 OCC East Fork Glover
* OWRB Glover
4 OCC West Fork Glover
Glover Streams
Tributaries
	Glover River
I I Glover Outline
Counties
G
Figure 1. The Glover River watershed in southeastern Oklahoma.
Forestry Services Division worked with forest landown-
ers to design and Implement forest management plans
and to recommend best management practices to
reduce impacts from harvesting operations.
Results
The OCC and the Oklahoma Water Resources Board
(OWRB) documented improved water quality in the
Glover River due to installation of CPs. The installed
CPs worked to decrease sediment erosion to down-
stream waterbodies. Monitoring data compiled for
the 2006 integrated report showed that Glover River
turbidity levelsviolated the turbidity 20 percent of the
time (Figure 2). However, by the 2014 assessment, tur-
bidity levels had dropped and only violated the criteria
9 percent of the time. Based on these data, Oklahoma
removed the Glover River from the CWA section
303(d) list for turbidity in 2014. The Glover River now
partially supports its FWP beneficial use.

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Table 1. CPs installed in the Glover River watershed.
Practice name
Amount
installed
Comprehensive nutrient management plan
2
Brush management
226 acres
Forest stand improvement
280 ac
Pond
11
Nutrient management
453 ac
Tree/shrub establishment
518 ac
Pest management
532 ac
Alley cropping
3 ac
Tree/shrub site preparation
634 ac
Fence
12,633 ft
Waste recycling
322 ac
Prescribed grazing
3,070 ac
Trails and walkways
2
Forage and biomass planting
148 ac
Prescribed burning
166 ac
Heavy use area protection
13 ac
Herbaceous weed treatment
153 ac
Waste storage facility
5
Critical area planting
4 ac
Upland wildlife habitat management
48 ac
Firebreak
11,900 ft
Glover River Turbidity
% exceeds:	20 18 11 10	9	9	5
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1 1
1
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2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020
Figure 2. Turbidity decreased in the Glover River as CPs
were installed.
funded by landowners based on recommendations
through NRCS general technical assistance and conser-
vation planning. ODAFF provides technical assistance
for silviculture activities in the watershed to reduce
impacts to downstream waterbodies.
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 $290,000 of
these federal and matching state funds have been
devoted to the Glover River. The OWRB also monitors
the Glover River through its Beneficial Use Monitoring
Program. From 2004 to 2017, NRCS supplied approxi-
mately $80,000 for implementation of CPs in the
watershed through NRCS EQIP. Additional funds were
provided through NRCS for technical assistance. The
state LLCP worked through the conservation districts
to provide $8,123, which was matched by $13,952
from landowners. In addition, many practices were
^edsj^ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
0** Office of Water
^ Washington, DC
WJ
EPA 841-F-18-001W
pRot^° October 2018
For additional information contact:
Shanon Phillips
Oklahoma Conservation Commission
405-522-4728 • shanon.phillips@conservation.ok.gov

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