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Conservation Practices Result in Clearer Waters in Rainy Mountain Creek
Waterbody improved
High turbidity levels resulted in impairment of Rainy Mountain
Creek and placement on Oklahoma's Clean Water Act (CWA)
section 303(d) list of impaired waters in 2008. Pollution from cropland and grazing lands contributed
to this impairment. Implementing conservation practice systems (CPs) to promote better land
management decreased pollutant runoff and reduced turbidity in the stream. As a result, Oklahoma
removed the turbidity impairment in 2012 from its CWA section 303(d) lists. Rainy Mountain Creek
now partially supports its warm water aquatic community (WWAC) designated beneficial use.
Problem
The Rainy Mountain Creek watershed covers approxi-
mately 200,637 acres in Kiowa, Comanche and Washita
counties in southwestern Oklahoma (Figure 1). Land
use in the watershed is about 67 percent crop and
pasture lands and 31 percent rangeland. Primary
agricultural products from the watershed are wheat,
cotton and cattle.
Rainy Mountain Creek is a sandy/silty bottom stream
with generally excellent fish communities and moder-
ate water quality for its ecoregion. Water quality
monitoring in the early 2000s determined that chal-
lenges with grazing land and cropland management
contributed to a 2008 listing of a 32.33-mile segment
of the stream as impaired by turbidity, when at least
33 percent of turbidity readings exceeded acceptable
I,talis. A stream is considered impaired for turbidity if
more than 10 percent of base flow samples exceed 50
nephelometric turbidity units. Based on these results,
Oklahoma added segment QK310830020060_10 to
the CWA section 303(d) lists in 2008 for nonattainment
of the WWAC designated beneficial use.
Story Highlights
More than 110 landowners in the watershed worked
with the Kiowa, Washita and Comanche county con-
servation districts; the U.S Department of Agriculture
(USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service
(NRCS); the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the
Oklahoma Conservation Commission (OCC) to imple-
ment CPs through many programs, including Oklahoma
NRCS's Environmental Quality Incentives Program
Figure 1. Rainy Mountain Creek is in southwestern Oklahoma.
(EQIP) and general conservation technical assistance
program, FSA's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP),
and OCC's Locally Led Cost Share Program (LLCP).
From 2008 to 2018, landowners improved croplands
and grazing management, which reduced runoff of
sediment and other pollutants by increasing vegetative
cover and reducing bare soil.
Landowners implemented access control (176 acres
[ac]), brush management (16,093 ac), conservation
cover (183 ac), conservation crop rotation (510 ac),
contour farming (27 ac), cover crop (941 ac), critical
area planting (54 ac), diversion (2,955 feet [ft]), fence
(18,376 ft), grade stabilization structures (5), grassed
waterways (62 ac), groundwater testing (4 tests),
heavy use protection areas (0.3 ac), land smoothing
(868 ac), lined waterways (11.1 ft), livestock pipeline
(13,106 ft), nutrient management (2,306 ac), pasture
Legend
Monitoring Sites
	Rainy Mountain WS Streams
	Rainy Mountain Creek
County Boundaries
| Rainy Mountain Creek Watershed

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and hayland planting (3,714 ac), pest management
(6,486 ac), ponds (67), prescribed grazing (28,555 ac),
three pumping plants, range planting (262 ac), no-till
(3,534 ac), reduced tillage (27 ac), seasonal residue
management (5,558 ac), terraces (90,443 ft), upland
wildlife habitat management (421 ac), water wells (4)
and watering facilities (5).
Results
The OCC documented improved water quality in Rainy
Mountain Creek due to installation of CPs through its
statewide nonpoint source Rotating Basin Ambient
Monitoring Program. By 2012, turbidity exceedances
had dropped to 7 percent and remained at similar
or lower ievels through the 2020 assessment period
(Figure 2). Based on these data, Oklahoma removed
Rainy Mountain Creek from the CWA section 303(d)
list for turbidity in 2012. Rainy Mountain Creek now
partially supports its WWAC beneficial use.
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 sec-
tion 319 funds support statewide water quality edu-
cational efforts through Blue Thumb. Approximately
$230,857 of these federal and state matching funds
have been devoted to Rainy Mountain Creek. From
2000 to 2018, NRCS supplied more than $1.5 mliiion
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 CRP. Finally, the OCC; Kiowa, Washita, and
Comanche county conservation districts; and landown-
ers funded more than $72,201 worth of CPs (at least
$42,468 of which was funded by landowners through
the L.LCP).
exceedance:
70.0
60.0
50.0
£
Z. 40.0
£"
I 30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
Rainy Mountain Creek Turbidity
33%
7%
0%
0%
0%
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2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2013
2020
Figure 2. Turbidity in Rainy Mountain Creek decreased with installation of CPs.
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA 841-F-20-0Q1RR
December 2020
For additional information contact:
Shanon Phillips
Oklahoma Conservation Commission
405-522-4728 • shanon.phillips@conservation.ok.gov

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