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I NONPOINT SOURCE SUCCESS STORY
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Conservation Practices Reduce Bacteria in Pryor Creek
Waterbody Improved
High bacteria levels resulted in the impairment of Pryor Creek
and placement on Oklahoma's Clean Water Act (CWA) section
303(d) list of impaired waters in 2002. Pollution from grazing lands contributed to this impairment.
Implementing conservation practice systems (CPs) to promote better agricultural land management
decreased Escherichia coli (E. coli) levels in the creek. As a result, Oklahoma removed lower Pryor
Creek from its 2014 CWA section 303(d) list for E. coli. Pryor Creek now partially supports its primary
body contact (PBC) designated beneficial use.
Problem
Pryor Creek is a 55.53-miie stream flowing through
Craig, Mayes and Rogers counties before joining the
Neosho River (Figure 1). Land use in the 146,775-acre
watershed is about 69 percent grazing lands and
22 percent forested. Approximately 4 percent of
the watershed is cropland. Challenges with grazing
land management contributed to listing the stream
as impaired for E. coli in 2002 when 20 percent of
individual samples violated the individual sample
maximum of 406 colony forming units per 100 mil-
liliters (CFU/100 mL) during the recreation season.
In 2004 the PBC designated use was considered
impaired if more than 10 percent of samples violated
the individual sample maximum. The assessment
method changed in 2008 and streams were considered
to be violating the standard if the recreation season
geometric mean exceeded 126 CFU/100 mLfor E. coli.
Oklahoma added a 4.97-mile segment of Pryor Creek
(OK121610000050_10) to the 2002 CWA section
303(d) list for nonattainment of its PBC designated
beneficial use.
Story Highlights
Landowners in the watershed worked with the Craig,
Mayes, and Rogers county conservation districts, the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS), and the OCC to imple-
ment CPs through Oklahoma NRCS's Environmental
Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Wetland Reserve
Program (WRP), and general conservation technical
assistance program, and through Oklahoma's Locally
Led Cost Share Program (LLCP). CPs installed between
2002 and 2015 focused on reducing erosion and pol-
lutant runoff from cropland and grazing lands in the
Figure 1. Pryor Creek is in northeastern Oklahoma.
watershed. These included access control (137 acres
[ac]), two composting facilities, 35 ponds, conserva-
tion crop rotation (2,805 ac), filter strip (11 ac), critical
area planting (9 ac), fence (55,615 ft), livestock pipeline
(14,021 ft), wetland restoration (62 ac), forage and
biomass planting (931 ac), two waste storage facii:-
ties, trails and walkways (131 ac), prescribed grazing
(37,178 ac), wetland restoration (62 ac), no-till (24 ac),
two livestock pumping plants, reduced-till (590 ac),
riparian forest buffer (191 ac), terrace (9,216 ft), tree
shrub establishment (16 ac), waste recycling (712 ac),
heavy use area protection (7 ac), 24 watering facilities,
wetland wildlife habitat management (268 ac), forage
harvest management (3,821 ac), brush management
(562 ac), nutrient management (2,319 ac), integrated
pest management (4,639 ac), seasonal residue man-
agement (550 ac), and upland wildlife habitat manage-
ment (2,442 ac).
ft Pryor Creek Monitoring Location
Delisted Segment
Pryor Watershed Streams
Pryor Creek Watershed

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geomean = 135
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2002	2004	2006	2008	2010	2012	2014	2016	2018
Pryor Creek E con
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87	66	131	178 231 25	17	29
Figure 2. £ coli bacteria concentrations decreased in Pryor Creek after installation of CPs.
Results	Partners and Funding
The Oklahoma Conservation Commission (OCC)
documented improved water quality in Pryor Creek
due to installation of CPs. The installed CPs worked to
decrease the runoff of fecal bacteria to downstream
waterbodies. Monitoring data compiled for the 2002
integrated report showed that Pryor Creek E. coli
levels violated the individual sample maximum 20
percent of the time and the geomean of 135 CFU/100
mL violated the standard of 126 CFU/100 ml_ (Figure 2).
By the 2014 assessment, bacteria levels had dropped,
and the £ coli geometric mean was 25 CFU/100 mL
(Figure 2). Based on these data, Oklahoma removed
Pryor Creek from the CWA section 303(d) list for
£ coli in 2014. Although the stream remains listed for
Enterococcus and therefore is only partially supporting
its PBC beneficial use, the stream is now delisted for
£ coli due to installation of CPs.
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 CWA sec-
tion 319 funds support statewide water quality edu-
cational efforts through Blue Thumb. Approximately
$188,416 of these federal and matching state funds
have been devoted to Pryor Creek. From 2002 to 2015,
NRCS supplied approximately $125,000 for implemen-
tation of CPs in the watershed through EQIP. Additional
funds were provided through NRCS for WRP. The state
LLCP provided $54,960 matched by $65,274 from
landowners. In addition, many practices were funded
by landowners based on recommendations through
NRCS general technical assistance and conservation
planning.
0
PRO^°
s
©
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA 841-F-18-Q01GG
November 2018
For additional information contact:
Shanon Phillips
Oklahoma Conservation Commission
405-522-4728 • shanon.phillips@conservation.ok.gov

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