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NINPIINT SOURCE SUCCESS STIRY Update
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Improving Vegetative Cover Leads to Improved Water Quality in Bitter Creek
Update Overview
This Nonpoint Source Success Story Update highlights the removal of an additional
impairment (turbidity) from Bitter Creek (OK621100000100_00). Oklahoma added
Bitter Creek to the 2002 Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list for Escherichia coli (E. coli) and turbidity. The
E. coli impairment was removed in 2010 (see the April 2014 Nonpoint Source Success Story, Implementing Best
Management Practices Reduces Bacteria Levels in Bitter Creek). Because recent data show that turbidity levels
comply with water quality standards, Oklahoma removed the turbidity impairment in 2010.
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Bitter Creek Turbidity
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Problem
Challenges with grazing and cropland management
contributed to turbidity in Bitter Creek. Collections
for the 2002 assessment indicated that 26 percent
of samples violated the turbidity criteria for a warm
water aquatic community. A stream is impaired if
more than 10 percent of samples violate the criteria.
Based on these results, Oklahoma added Bitter Creek
to the 2002 CWA section 303(d) list for turbidity
impairment.
Story Highlights
Much of the work contributing to the improvement is
described in the April 2014 Bitter Creek success story;
however, landowners have continued to partner with
U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS), Farm Services Agency
(FSA), and the Oklahoma Conservation Commission's
(OCC's) Locally Led Cost-share Program (LLCP) to install
conservation practices (CPs). Landowners installed additional CPs from 2010 to 2017 that improved vegetative cover,
including no-till (2,647 acres), livestock access control (97 acres), nutrient management (441 acres), prescribed grazing
(904 acres), range planting (304 acres), terraces (84,149 feet), 88 acres of wetland restoration, and additional practices.
Results
OCC's Rotating Basin Monitoring Program has documented improved water quality in Bitter Creek. In the 2010 assess-
ment, 7 percent of baseflow samples exceeded the turbidity standard (Figure 1). As a result, Oklahoma removed Bitter
Creek from the CWA section 303(d) list for turbidity; it now partially supports its Fish and Wildlife Propagation benefi-
cial use.
Partners and Funding
Partners highlighted in the April 2014 success story continued to work in the watershed with the support of an addi-
tional $105,000 in water quality monitoring and education from the OCC using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
CWA section 319 funds. NRCS, FSA, OCC, and landowners invested a minimum of $70,000 in additional conservation
program funds for CPs in the watershed from 2012 to 2017.
Figure 1. Turbidity declined as agricultural producers installed CPs.
update: October 2018	For additional information contact:
EPA 841-F-18-001Z	Shanon Phillips
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	Oklahoma Conservation Commission
Office of Water	405-522-4500 • shanon.phillips@conservation.ok.gov
Washington, DC

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