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Better Land Management Improves Water Quality in Euchee Creek
WatprhnHv ImnrnvpH High bacteria, turbidity, pH, and ammonia levels resulted in
impairment of Euchee Creek and placement on Oklahoma's
Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters in 2002 (for turbidity and pH), 2010
(for bacteria) and 2014 (for ammonia). Pollution from grazing lands and wastewater discharges
contributed to these impairments. Implementing conservation practice systems (CPs) to promote
better land management decreased turbidity, pH, ammonia, and Escherichia coli (E, coli) levels in the
watershed. As a result, Oklahoma removed the pH impairment in 2008, the turbidity impairment
in 2012, the E. coli impairment in 2014, and the ammonia impairment in 2016 from its CWA section
303(d) lists. Euchee Creek now partially supports its warm water aquatic community (WWAC) and
primary body contact (PBC) designated beneficial uses.
Problem
The Euchee Creek Watershed extends over 63,782
acres in Payne, Lincoln, and Creek counties in central
Oklahoma (Figure 1). Land use in the watershed is
about 58 percent hay and grazing lands and 27 percent
shrub and forest land. Approximately 3 percent of the
watershed is cropland. A portion of Cushing, Oklahoma
(population 7,704), lies in the watershed. Cushing is
home to one of the largest crude oil storage hubs on
earth, and is located in between oil production lands
and refineries. However, other than transmission and
storage, not much oil and gas activity occurs in the
Euchee Creek Watershed.
In 2002, challenges with grazing land management
in the Cross Timbers Ecoregion contributed to list-
ing a 9.56-mile segment of the stream as impaired
by turbidity when at least 32 percent of samples
exceeded the turbidity standard. A stream is consid-
ered to violate the standard if more than 10 percent of
baseflow samples exceed 50 nephelometric turbidity
units (NTU). The stream was also listed as impaired for
pH in 2002 when 11 percent of pH readings fell outside
acceptable pH limits. A stream is considered impaired
for pH if more than 10 percent of samples fall outside
a range of 6.5 to 9 standard pH units.
Between 2000 and 2015, the city of Cushing's aging
wastewater treatment plant (WW'TP) experienced sev-
eral permit exceedances, primarily for total suspend
solids, dissolved oxygen, and fecal coliform. These
issues, as well as challenges in grazing management,
Figure 1. The Euchee Creek Watershed, Oklahoma.
led to findings from the 2010 assessment, where
the stream was determined to exceed allowable
bacteria levels for E. coli when the geometric mean of
samples collected during the recreation season was
237 colony forming units per 100 milliliters (CFU/100
mL). A stream is considered to violate the standard if
the recreation season geometric mean exceeds 126
CFU/100 mL for E. coli. Finally, in the 2014 assessment,
18 percent of ammonia concentrations were outside
acceptable limits for toxicity based on temperature
and pl-l. A stream is considered to violate standards
for ammonia If more than 10 percent of samples are
outside acceptable limits. Based on these results,
Oklahoma added segment OK620900010290_00 to
the CWA section 303(d) lists in 2002 (for turbidity
and pH), 2010 (for E. coli), and 2014 (for ammonia)
for nonattainment of the WWAC and PBC designated
beneficial uses.
Legend
* Euchee Monitoring Site
P Cushing VVWTP
:uchee Watershed Streams
	Euchee Streams
OK620900010290_00
County Boundaries

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Euchee Creek pH
% exceeds = 11% 13% 5%	6% 5% 0% 5%	0%




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2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022
Euchee Creek E. coll
E 500
Figure 2. pH levels improved in Euchee Creek.
Story Highlights
Landowners in the watershed worked with the Payne,
Lincoln, and Creek county conservation districts, the
U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS), 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 through the OCC's
Locally Led Cost Share Program (LLCP). From 2004 to
2018, landowners improved pasture, hay meadows,
and cropland, which reduced runoff of sediment,
bacteria and other pollutants by decreasing erosion
and better utilizing available grazing lands. Landowners
implemented upland wildlife habitat management
(507 acres [ac]), prescribed burning (254 ac), invasive
species/noxious weed control (1,546 ac), forage
harvest management (718 ac), pasture and hayland
planting (267 ac), prescribed grazing (5,330 ac), filter
strips (2 ac), conservation tillage (225 ac), nutrient
management (460 ac), critical area planting (6 ac), and
fencing (24,304 linear feet). Partners also installed two
pumping plants, two watering facilities, four water
wells, 12 ponds, and 188 feet of pipeline. In addition,
in October 2015, the city of Cushing completed a
$765,000 upgrade to their WWTP, which helped bring
the system back into compliance.
Results
The OCC documented improved water quality in
Euchee Creek due to installation of CPs through its
statewide nonpoint source Rotating Basin Ambient
Monitoring Program. By 2006, pH exceedances had
Figure 3. E. coli levels declined in Euchee Creek.
dropped to 5 percent and remained at similar or lower
levels through the 2020 assessment period (Figure 2).
By 2012, turbidity level exceedances had dropped to
less than 10 percent. By 2014, geomean E. coli levels
had dropped to 75 CFU/100 mL which meets the stan-
dards (Figure 3). By 2016 ammonia level exceedances
had dropped under 10 percent and therefore were
within allowable limits. Based on these data, Oklahoma
removed Euchee Creek from the CWA section 303(d)
list for pH in 2006, turbidity in 2012, E. coli in 2014,
and ammonia in 2016. Euchee Creek now partially
supports its WWAC and PBC beneficial uses. The 2015
WWTP upgrade has helped to ensure the Euchee River
continues to meet standards.
Partners and Funding
The OCC monitoring program is supported by U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) 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 $236,883
of these federal and state matching funds have been
devoted to Euchee Creek.
From 1991 to 2018, NRCS supplied more than $49,000
for CP implementation in Oklahoma through EQIP. In
addition, many practices were funded by landowners
based on recommendations through NRCS general
technical assistance. Finally, the OCC; the Payne,
Lincoln and Creek county conservation districts; and
landowners funded more than $194,618 worth of CPs
(at least $105,754 of which was funded by landowners
through the LLCP).
^edsj^ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
0** Office of Water
^ Washington, DC
WJ
EPA 841-F-19-001T
PROt^° August 2019
For additional information contact:
Shanon Phillips
Oklahoma Conservation Commission
405-522-4728 • shanon.phillips@conservation.ok.gov

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