Changes to Farming Techniques Reducing Water Pollution

Oklahomans have participated in a program that pays rural landowners annual stipends and shares in the cost of conservation techniques to curb pollution in two major watersheds, feeding the North Canadian and Illinois rivers

For nearly a decade, Couch and about 350 other Oklahomans have participated in a program that pays rural landowners annual stipends and shares in the cost of conservation techniques to curb pollution in two major watersheds, feeding the North Canadian and Illinois rivers.

By the end of this year, the state team leading the program, which launched in 2007, will know its results. The program is in its final days — $5.7 million in federal funding has dried up — so state scientists are measuring its impact by testing water quality, looking to see if aquatic life has recovered and analyzing levels of nitrogen, phosphorous and bacteria.

The program focuses on improving the health of two of the state’s most important rivers, beset by pollution from farm runoff, livestock and poultry houses.

The North Canadian River, which flows through western Oklahoma, provides drinking water to the Oklahoma City area. The Illinois is a popular tourist draw on the eastern side of the state that supports a diverse eco-system.

Pollution problems on those rivers represent a broader problem.

Nearly 750 of the state’s creeks, streams and lakes don’t meet water quality standards, which means “they’ve either got some problem that makes it not safe for aquatic life, or not safe for livestock to drink or not safe for people to swim in or drink from,” said Shanon Phillips, director of the Oklahoma Conservation Commission’s water quality division.

“Everything humans do impacts the landscape,” she said. “A lot of these problems have been in development since statehood. They’re going to have an impact on the land downstream. It always costs more in the long run to treat it and clean up the problem than it does to prevent the problem from occurring.”

Preliminary results of the conservation program show promise on the Illinois River, she said. On the North Canadian, the long drought hindered data collection, so the scientific team can’t assess the program’s impact until later this year.

Just as problems on both rivers reflect pollution struggles elsewhere in the state, Phillips said she’s hopeful conservation efforts practiced on those rivers will set “a good example of what we should be doing in some of these other places.”

Already Oklahomans have implemented voluntary programs to clean up 48 streams, she said. Only Washington state has been more successful repairing polluted waterways.

Scott Talbert, 43, who ranches in Stilwell, Okla., has signed up for three separate conservation programs for his land, and he hopes to be selected for a fourth.

Talbert said he’s seen documentaries about Oklahoma’s polluted waterways, and these programs aren’t the work of rabid environmental activists.

“These just aren’t off-the-chart, tree-hugger types,” he said. “This is a for-real deal.”

But just being a good steward of the land is expensive.

Neither Couch nor Talbert could even begin to estimate how much they’ve spent.

Talbert, who supports his farm by working in Internet marketing, said he’s easily spent thousands of dollars on the effort. He’s fencing around a creek and ravines to keep out his livestock — sheep, goats, donkeys and cows. This week, he’s adding water troughs.

He said he’s so busy making upgrades, he hasn’t had time to sort out what percentage the state pays. Without a cost-sharing agreement, he said, it’s unlikely that he would have made some of the improvements.

Both Talbert and Couch have built fences to restore grasslands and keep livestock out of water sources. They’re helping revegetate creek beds. They’ve installed alternative water sources for livestock.

In western Oklahoma, the conservation program works with wheat farmers and encourages changes in how they till their fields. It’s worked with rural homeowners to repair defective septic systems that have polluted the watersheds.

Source: Times Record 

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