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Modeling recurrent turbidity impairments in Oklahoma and the impact of targeted best management practices on sediment concentrations

Winrich, Abigail
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Abstract

The Clean Water Act mandates that states must maintain a water quality standard to ensure surface waters remain functional for aquatic life and safe for agricultural or recreation use. Water Bodies that exceed any of the defined standards must be reported as threatened or impaired semiannually to the USEPA per section 303(d). If listed, states must then develop and implement a watershed plan for the threatened or impaired waterbodies to reduce pollution and hopefully delist the waterbody. While the waterbody is impaired, states have access to funds set aside by Section 319 that provide funding for monitoring efforts and technical assistance and cost sharing for landowners. Management of non-point source pollution, such as turbidity, is achieved by implementing best management practices (BMPs), which are costly to install and maintain, making it imperative that they provide a lasting reduction in pollution. Turbidity is a leading impairment that largely stems from non-point source pollution, which are sources without easily identifiable outlets. This research analyzed Oklahoma’s 303(d) lists from 2002-2022 for recurrent turbidity impairments. Three case study watersheds were selected to determine potential causes for the list-delist-relist pattern. The Wewoka, Turkey, and Stillwater Creek watersheds were selected based on size, ecoregion, and documented management efforts. The watersheds were then modeled for the 21-year period using the Hydrologic and Water Quality System (OK.HAWQS). A baseline model was run to analyze historic sediment contributions in each watershed, which allowed us to investigate the impact of different land use types on sediment loss and find variations across watersheds in erodibility. The Grassland, Winter Wheat, and Pasture land uses in the Stillwater, Turkey, and Wewoka watersheds lost the most sediment, respectively. BMP scenarios were run for the land use contributing the most sediment in each watershed. Based on the most commonly implemented practices in Oklahoma, we chose enclosure fencing, conservation grazing, and no-till for Stillwater, Turkey, and Wewoka, respectively. These scenarios showed conservation grazing has a positive impact on sediment reduction, up to 50%, while no-till and fencing had a small to neutral impact on sediment loading. These results can be used to inform future management project ad assess the adequacy of current management techniques in a changing climate.

Date
2024-07
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