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(Jfc) NONPOINT SOIREE SRCEESS STORY
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Conservation Partnership Improves Water Quality in Bird Creek
(Hughes County)
\a/3tprhnr|\' ImnrnvpH	ammonia/ total dissolved solids (TDS), arid pH levels resulted
in impairment of Bird Creek and placement on Oklahoma's Clean
Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters in 2002 (for pH), 2010 (for ammonia) and
2012 (for TDS), Pollution from grazing lands contributed to these impairments. Implementing
conservation practice systems (CPs) to promote better land management decreased pH, ammonia,
and TDS levels in the watershed. As a result, Oklahoma removed the pH impairment in 2006 and
the ammonia and TDS impairments in 2016 from its CWA section 303(d) lists. Bird Creek now fully
supports its warm water aquatic community (WWAC) and partially supports its agricultural (AG)
designated beneficial uses.
Problem
The Bird Creek watershed covers approximately
22,000 acres in Hughes and Seminole counties in
southeastern Oklahoma (Figure 1). Land use in the
watershed is about 69 percent hay grazing lands
and 28 percent forest land. A smail percentage of
agricultural lands are cropped in the watershed, and
there are four small hog-growing facilities. A portion
of Hoi denvi 11 e. Oklahoma (population 5,547), lies in
the watershed, although the monitoring station was
piaced upstream of the tributary draining the town to
avoid potential point source impacts.
Water quality sampling in the late 1990s determined
that challenges with grazing land management con-
tributed to a 2002 listing of a 13.81-mile segment of
the stream as impaired by pH when at least 13 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 6.5-9
standard pH units. Later, samples collected from 2004
through 2009 and assessed in 2010 found that at least
21 percent of ammonia concentrations were outside
acceptable limits for toxicity based on temperature
and pH. A stream is considered to violate standards
for ammonia if more than 10 percent of samples are
outside acceptable limits.
Finally, in the 2012 assessment, at least 12 percent of
TDS samples exceeded the water quality standard. A
stream is considered impaired by pH when more than
Figure 1. I he Bird Creek watershed is in Hughes and Seminole
counties, Oklahoma.
10 percent of samples are higher than 700 milligrams
per liter (mg/L). Based on these results, Oklahoma
added segment OK520800010050_00 to the CWA sec-
tion 303(d) lists in 2002 (for pH), 2010 (for ammonia),
and 2012 (for TDS) for nonattainment of the WWAC
and AG designated beneficial uses.
Story Highlights
More than 30 landowners in the watershed worked
with the Hughes and Seminole county conservation
districts, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the
Oklahoma Conservation Commission (OCC) to imple-
ment CPs through various programs, including OCC's
Locally Led Cost Share Program (LLCP) and Oklahoma
Legend
Monitoring Sites
	 Bird Creek WS Streams
—— Bird Creek
| Bird Creek Watershed
	 County Boundaries

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NRCS's Environmental Quality Incentives
Program (EQIP), Conservation Stewardship
Program (CSP) and general conservation
technical assistance program.
From 2000 to 2018, landowners improved
pasture, hay meadows and animal waste
management, which reduced runoff of
ammonia, salts and other pollutants by
improving grazing land vegetative cover and
improving animal waste and nutrient man-
agement. Landowners implemented brush
management (3 acres [ac]), upland wildlife
habitat management (338 ac), contour
farming (17 ac), conservation crop rotation
(110 ac), fencing (17,807 feet), forage harvest
management (579 ac), firebreaks (5,280
feet), pasture and hayland planting (199 ac),
prescribed grazing (2,875 ac), filter strips (1
ac), no-till (110 ac), nutrient management
(1,749 ac), critical area planting (17 ac), and
pest management (1,496 ac). Partners also installed
two pumping plants, one water well, 12 ponds, and
13,200 feet of irrigation pipeline and three sprinkler
systems. Programs funded 20 tons of hog waste
transfer off-farm and waste recycling on 161 ac. At
least 950 ac in the watershed were enrolled in the CSP
program, which recognizes producers for continued
progress in meeting conservation goals.
Bird Creek pH
4.8%	8.3 % 0% 0%
% Exceed:
2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020
Figure 2. pH levels in Bird Creek improved with installation of CPs.
fully supports its WWAC and partially supports its AG
beneficial uses.
Results
The OCC documented improved water quality in Bird
Creek due to installation of CPs through its statewide
nonpoint source Rotating Basin Ambient Monitoring
Program. By 2006, pH exceedances had dropped to
5 percent and remained at similar or lower levels
through the 2020 assessment period (Figure 2). By
2016, ammonia and TDS exceedances had dropped to
less than 10 percent and therefore were within allow-
able limits. Based on these data, Oklahoma removed
Bird Creek from the CWA section 303(d) list for pH in
2006 and ammonia and TDS in 2016. Bird Creek now
Partners and Funding
The OCC monitoring program is supported by the
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 $252,675
of these federal and state matching funds have been
devoted to Bird Creek.
From 2000 to 2018, NRCS supplied more than $25,000
for CP implementation in Oklahoma through EQIP. In
addition, many practices were funded by landowners
based on recommendations through NRCS general
technical assistance. Additional funds were provided
through CSP. Finally, the OCC, Seminole and Hughes
county conservation districts and landowners funded
more than $26,067 worth of CPs (at least $12,137 of
which was funded by landowners through the LLCP).
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA EPA 841-F-20-001M
December 2020
For additional information contact:
Shanon Phillips
Oklahoma Conservation Commission
405-522-4728 • shanon.phillips@conservation.ok.gov

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