Success Spotlight: Walnut and West Creeks, KS
Implementing Agricultural Best Management Practices Improves Dissolved Oxygen Levels in Creeks
EPA's Clean Water Act Section 319 Program provides funding for restoration of nonpoint-source-impaired water bodies. Success stories are posted at http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/nps/success319/. This week's success spotlight shines on Walnut and West Creeks, KS.
Walnut and West creeks are located in the Toronto Reservoir watershed, which is used primarily as grassland for livestock grazing. Nonpoint-source pollution, specifically nutrients from poor pasture management and livestock areas, affected water quality, prompting the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to add both creeks to the state's list of impaired waters in 1998 for low levels of dissolved oxygen. Several organizations worked collaboratively with local landowners to implement agricultural best management practices. As a result, water quality monitoring data collected since 2002 showed improved water quality and the department has since removed both creeks from the state's 2010 list of impaired waters for dissolved oxygen impairment.
For more information on this story, visit http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/nps/success319/ks_walnut.cfm.
Source: US EPA
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