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36J NONPOINT source success stury
Conservation Practices Reduce Turbidity in Rock Creek
\ */a-t-Qi-hnHx' lmnrn\ pH High turbidity levels resulted in the impairment of Rock Creek and
placement on Oklahoma's Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list
of impaired waters in 2008 for turbidity. Pollution from grazing lands and poor forest management
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 Rock Creek from its 2014 CWA section 303(d) list for turbidity. Rock Creek partially
supports its Fish and Wildlife Propagation (FWP) beneficial use.
Problem
Rock Creek is a 12.35-mile stream flowing through
McCurtain County before it crosses into Arkansas
(Figure 1). Land use in the 28,587 acre (ac) watershed
is about 73 percent deciduous and evergreen forests
and about 20 percent grazing lands. Approximately 6
percent of the watershed is developed (primarily roads
and farm homesteads). There is some poultry produc-
tion in the watershed as well.
Challenges with forest and grazing lands manage-
ment contributed to listing the river as impaired
for turbidity in 2008 when 18 percent of samples
violated the turbidity criteria for a 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 Rock
Creek (OK410200030010_00) to the 2008 CWA section
303(d) list for nonattainment of its FWP designated
beneficial use.
Story Highlights
Landowners in the watershed worked with the Little
River Conservation District and the U.S. Department
of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation
Service (NRCS) to implement CPs through NRCS's
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP),
Grazing Lands Conservation Program (GLC), and gen-
eral conservation technical assistance program.
CPs installed from 2002 to 2017 focused on animal
waste management (including feral swine eradication)
and other methods of reducing erosion and pollutant
runoff from forest and grazing lands in the watershed.
Figure 1. The 28,587-acre Rock Creek Watershed is in
southeastern Oklahoma.
Specific CPs installed included 13 comprehensive nutri-
ent management plans, brush management (1,334 ac),
forest stand improvement (1,356 ac), nutrient manage-
ment (2,291 ac), tree/shrub site preparation (224 ac)
and establishment (225 ac), pest management (2,673
ac), forage harvest management (114 ac), forage and
biomass planting (1,196 ac), wildlife habitat manage-
ment (15 ac of wetland; 757 ac upland), and feral
swine management (450 ac). Additional CPs included
13 ponds, fencing (43,671 feet [ft]), waste recycling
(857 ac), one waste facility cover, one water well,
heavy use area protection (68 ac), livestock pipeline
(990 ft), cover crop (39 ac), prescribed grazing (3,465
ac), herbaceous weed treatment (131 ac), five waste
storage facilities, filter strips (62 ac), four waste facility
closures, and critical area planting (18 ac).
Rock Creek Watershed Streams
Rock Creek
Counties

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Rock Creek Turbidity
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2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
Figure 2. Turbidity decreased in Rock Creek after CPs were installed.
Results	Partners and Funding
The Oklahoma Conservation Commission (OCC)
documented improved water quality in Rock Creek
due to installation of CPs. The installed CPs worked
to decrease the amount of sediment eroding and
entering downstream waterbodies. Monitoring data
compiled for the 2008 integrated report showed that
Rock Creek turbidity levels violated the turbidity 18
percent of the time (Figure 2). However, by the 2014
assessment, turbidity levels had dropped and only vio-
lated the criteria 8 percent of the time. Based on these
data, Oklahoma removed Rock Creek from the CWA
section 303(d) list for turbidity in 2014. Rock Creek
now partially supports its FWP beneficial use.
The OCC monitoring program is supported by U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (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 $145,000 of these
federal and matching state funds have been devoted
to Rock Creek. From 2002 to 2017, NRCS supplied
approximately $210,000 for implementation of CPs in
the watershed through EQIP. Additional funds were
provided through NRCS for technical assistance. In
addition, many practices were funded by landowners
based on recommendations through NRCS general
technical assistance and GLC conservation planning.
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PRO^°
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©
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA 841-F-18-Q01FF
November 2018
For additional information contact:
Shanon Phillips
Oklahoma Conservation Commission
405-522-4728 • shanon.phillips@conservation.ok.gov

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