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NBNPQIHT SOURCE SUCCESS STORY
Aquatic Life Use Restored in a Tributary to Soiith Fork Wildcat Creek
Waterbody Improved Agricultural activities related to crop cultivation and livestock
rearing contributed nonpoint source pollution to an unnamed tributary to the South Fork Wildcat
Creek (SFWC), which caused the waterbody to fail to support its aquatic life use. As a result, the
Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) added this waterbody to its 2002 Clean
Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) impaired waters list for biotic communities. Project partners
developed a watershed management plan and implemented best management practices (BMPs) to
improve water quality in the stream. The waterbody now supports its aquatic life use. IDEM will
propose to remove this waterbody from its list of impaired waters in 2020.
InduK-fMS,
Problem
This unnamed tributary to the SFWC (assessment unit
!NB0738_T1002) is a smaii headwater stream in the
Wiidcat Creek watershed in Clinton County, Indiana
(Figure 1). it Is in the eastern portion of the highly
agricultural Jenkins Ditch-SFWC watershed and is pre-
dominantly surrounded by cultivated crops. The main
stern of the SFWC is forested; however, most of the
headwaters of this segment have no riparian buffer.
Water quality sampling performed by IDEM in 1998
revealed a low index of biotic integrity (IBI) score,
indicating that the stream was unhealthy (Figure 2). In
Indiana, streams that support a well-balanced aquatic
community will have an IBI score greater than or equal
to 36. Fish community data collected by IDEM in 1998
showed that this tributary to the SFWC scored only
a 22. This result caused IDEM to list the stream on
its 2002 CWA section 303(d) list of impaired waters
for impaired biotic communities. To address this and
other impairments, IDEM developed a total maximum
daily load (TMDL.) for Escherichia coli, total suspended
solids, and nitrate-nitrite in 2008 for the SFWC
watershed.
Story Highlights
Stakeholders have long been interested In improving
the health of the SFWC watershed. From 1999 to 2003,
the indiana Association of Soil and Water Conservation
Districts (IASWCD) used grants to fund two techni-
cal assistant positions to help reduce the backlog of
conservation practices within the larger Wildcat Creek
Jenkins Ditch-South Fork Wildcat Creek
12-HUC Subwatershed
South Fork Wildcat Creek	N
Watershed
Figure 1. The unnamed tributary of the South Fork Wildcat
Creek is in the Jenkins Ditch-South Fork Wildcat Creek 12-digit
watershed.
watershed. The technical assistants helped landowners
design, survey and implement conservation practices,
placing priority on practices that could address the
identified water quality concerns.
Using funds provided through the IASWCD, the Wildcat
Creek Watershed Network (now known as the Wildcat
Creek Watershed Alliance) hired an executive director/
watershed coordinator to develop a long-term strate-
gic plan for the larger Wildcat Creek watershed, which
includes SFWC. This strategic plan formed the founda-
tion of future planning and implementation efforts
that helped improve the unnamed tributary.

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Figure 2. South Fork Wildcat Creek was unhealthy
before restoration efforts took place.
From 2005 to 2012, watershed partners conducted
education and outreach through stakeholder meet-
ings, public workshops, field days, newsletters, and
community cleanups to raise awareness and prompt
behavior changes in community members within the
entire SFWC watershed community. Workshop topics
included information on BMPs such as the use of cover
crops, proper septic system management and soil
health maintenance. In 2009 Clinton County Soil and
Water Conservation District (SWCD) received a CWA
section 205(j) grant to prepare a nine-element water-
shed plan for SFWC. Implementation of the plan began
in 2012. So far, landowners have installed a variety of
BMPs to improve the health of the SFWC, including
cover crops, waste utilization and waste management,
well decommissioning, an animal mortality facility,
conservation cover, no-tili, exclusion fence, pasture
and hay plantings, heavy use area protection, stream
crossing, nutrient and pesticide management, a water-
ing facility, a manure transfer facility, filter strips and
grassed waterways.
Results
IDEM returned to the SFWC tributary for follow-
up monitoring in 2017. This monitoring showed an
improved IBI score of 46 at the mouth of the stream,
which exceeds the minimum IBI of 36 that is needed
to indicate support of a well-balanced aquatic com-
munity. Habitat showed marked improvements in
reduction of silt, as well as deeper pools, less embed-
ded riffles, and a bank that had recovered from severe
erosion. On the basis of these data, IDEM wiii propose
to remove the stream from Its impaired waters list in
2020.
Partners and Funding
Various partners have implemented several projects
In the greater SFWC watershed over the years. In
the late 1990s, the IASWCD undertook efforts to
provide strategic planning and technical assistance to
the larger Wildcat Creek watershed using $189,500
in CWA section 319 funding. The Wildcat Creek
Watershed Alliance took over implementation of
the Wildcat Creek Watershed Management Plan in
2006 using $150,000 in CWA section 319 funds. The
U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources
Conservation Service provided further funding and
technical assistance through a variety of programs in
the Jenkins Ditch-SFWC watershed between 2004 and
2017, totaling $7,951,224. Between 2001 and 2017, the
Clinton County SWCD used a variety of funding sources
(including private funds and CWA section 205(j) and
319 funds) to write a nine-element plan specific to the
SFWC watershed and to provide cost share on BMP
installations in the watershed, at a cost of $754,628.
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA 841-F-18-001YY
December 2018
For additional information contact:
Angie Brown
Indiana Department of Environmental Management
317-308-3102 • abrown@idem.IN.gov

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