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NONPOINT SOURCE SUCCESS STORY
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Enhanced Grassland Management Improves Water Quality in Salt Creek
Waterbody Improved
High Escherichia coli (E. coli) concentrations and poor fish
community structure resulted in impairment of Salt Creek and
placement on Oklahoma's Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters in 2006
(fish) and 2010 (E. coli). Pollution from grazing lands contributed to this impairment. Implementing
conservation practice systems (CPs) to promote better land management decreased runoff of
bacteria and other pollutants and resulted in improved fish communities. As a result, Oklahoma
removed the E, coli and fish impairments from its 2016 CWA section 303(d) list. Salt Creek now
partially supports its primary body contact (PBC) and warm water aquatic community (WWAC)
designated beneficial uses.
Problem
The Salt Creek Watershed covers approximately
152,700 acres in Pottawatomie and Seminole counties
in the Cross Timbers Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) level III ecoregion in Oklahoma (Figure 1). Land
use in the watershed is about 50% grazing lands (man-
aged pasture and rangeland), 43% forested and less
than 1% cropland. Most of the cultivated fields lie in
the flat lands along the stream. The primary agricul-
tural products from the watershed are hay and cattle.
Water quality monitoring in the early to rnid~2000s
determined that challenges with grazing land manage-
ment contributed to a 2006 listing of the 39.02-mile
stream as having an impaired fish community. A
2003 fish collection produced an Index of Biotic
integrity (IBI) score of 15, which was 40% of the
reference stream IBI for the Cross Timbers ecoregion.
Waterbodies are considered to be not supporting
the WWAC beneficial use if the IBI score is 61% or
less of reference stream scores. This IBI coincided
with a habitat score of 50.6, which was among the
lowest measured for the ecoregion, and may have
contributed to the poor fish community structure
E. coli samples collected during this period were also
elevated—the geometric mean of samples collected
during the recreation season (May 1 - September
30) was 149 colony forming units per 100 milliliters
(CFU/100 mL). A stream is considered impaired for
E. coli if the geomean is greater than 126 CFU/100 mL.
Based on these results, Oklahoma added segment
OK520800030010_00 to the CWA section 303(d) lists
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Legend
Salt Cr. Monitoring Site
	Salt Creek Watershed Streams
Salt Creek Watershed
County Boundaries
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Figure 1. Salt Creek is in central Oklahoma.
in 2006 and 2010 for nonattainment of the WWAC and
PBC designated beneficial uses, respectively.
Story Highlights
More than '100 landowners in the watershed worked
with the Shawnee and Konawa conservation districts,
the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS),
Farm Service Agency (FSA), and the Oklahoma
Conservation Commission (OCC). They implemented
CPs through Oklahoma NRCS's Environmental Quality
Incentives Program (EQIP), Conservation Stewardship
Program (CStwP) and general conservation technical
assistance program; FSA's Conservation Reserve
Program (CRP); and OCC's Locally Led Cost Share
Program (LLCP). From 2000 to 2020, landowners
improved grazing management, which reduced
runoff of sediment, bacteria, and other pollutants by

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increasing vegetative cover and reducing bare soil.
Landowners implemented access control (61 acres
[ac]), brush management (2,617 ac), conservation
cover (0.30 ac), critical area planting (47.5 ac), fence
(38,287 feet [ft]), forage harvest management (3,507
ac), firebreak (28,816 ft), grade stabilization structures
(2), herbaceous weed treatment (332 ac), high tunnel
systems (2), livestock pipeline (8,053 ft), nutrient
management (3,248 ac), pasture and hayland planting
(394 ac), pest management (8,360 ac), ponds (41),
prescribed burning (656 ac), prescribed grazing (14,581
ac), upland wildlife habitat management (2,647 ac),
animal waste transfer, water well (1) and windbreak
shelter belt (1,600 ft). In addition, at least 3,248 acres
were enrolled in CStwP, meaning that conservation
plans had already addressed the most urgent natural
resource concerns and producers were working
towards even greater resource protection.
Results
The OCC documented improved water quality in Salt
Creek due to installation of CPs through its statewide
nonpoint source Rotating Basin Ambient Monitoring
Program. By 2016, the E. coli geometric mean had
dropped to 57.4 CFU/100 mL and remained at similar
or lower levels through the 2022 assessment period
(Figure 2). Fish communities had also improved to an
IBI of 19, which is 80% of reference conditions for the
ecoregion (Figure 3). Aquatic habitat scores slightly
improved to 55.9, primarily due to emergence of rocky
riffles and increased instream cover. Based on these
data, Oklahoma removed Salt Creek from the CWA
section 303(d) list for E. coli and fish community in
2016. Salt Creek now partially supports its WWAC and
PBC beneficial uses.
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 $209,870
Salt Creek E. coli
Max. = 13,200 13,200 13,200	1,100
Geomean = 149.1 141.6 128.9 57.4	53.3	21.3
1000
900
_ 800
£ 700
i 500 rn
2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020
Figure 2. E. coli in Salt Creek improved with the
installation of CPs.
Salt Creek Fish Community Indices
2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020
score	% reference
Figure 3. Fish communities improved in Salt Creek with
the installation of CPs that resulted in improved fish
habitat.
of these federal and state matching funds have been
devoted to Salt Creek.
From 2000 to 2020, NRCS supplied more than
$280,000 for CP implementation in Oklahoma through
EQIP. In addition, many practices were funded by
landowners based on recommendations through
CStwP, NRCS general technical assistance, and FSA's
CRP. Finally, OCC, Shawnee and Konawa conservation
districts, and landowners funded more than $273,214
worth of CPs (at least $145,737 of which was funded by
landowners through the LLCP).
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PRO^°
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA 841-F-21-001Z
November 2021
For additional information contact:
Shanon Phillips
Oklahoma Conservation Commission
405-522-4728 • shanon.phillips@conservation.ok.gov

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