North Central Region One Water Action Forum

1. Bridging the urban-rural divide with
One Water: examples from the
Little Arkansas River Watershed
Trisha Moore & Ron Graber
December 12, 2018

2. One watershed, many players
Municipal drinking water
Municipal stormwater (MS4)
Agricultural runoff
City of Wichita
KS Dept Health & Environment
Kansas State University
Watershed Restoration
and Protection Strategy
(WRAPS) program
Rural landowners
One water resource: the Little Arkansas River
- Drinking water source
- TMDL-regulated for sediment, bacteria, nutrients, pesticides

3. Two programs aimed to unify
watershed management goals
1. Driven by drinking water quality concerns
& treatment costs
– Primary concern: atrazine
2. Driven by stormwater MS4 permit
requirements
– Primary concern: sediment

4.  Little Ark WRAPS was
completed in 2004
 Revised Plan Addressing EPA 9
Elements in 2011
 Revised Goals in 2016
 Working with Little Ark
producers since 2005 to
implement water quality BMPs

5. Unified watershed management
via drinking water program
Atrazine removal
from river
$$$$$
$$$
Atrazine runoff
prevention
$

6. Managing atrazine for drinking water quality
 Partnered with the city of Wichita to reduce atrazine runoff
from corn and grain sorghum fields.
 Education and awareness campaign with growers, pesticide
dealers and crop consultants.
 Targeted watersheds for rapid implementation of atrazine
herbicide BMPs.
 A surface water quality monitoring system was installed to
evaluate the effectiveness of BMP's implemented.

7. Form Used To Calculate Incentive Payment
Reduction in
Atrazine BMPs Utilized (Check all that apply) Runoff Factor
Incorporate atrazine into the first 2 inches of soil prior to planting .70
Apply atrazine in the fall or prior to April 15 .50
Apply atrazine as part of a postemergence premix .60
Reduce soil-applied atrazine rates based on 1.6 lb ai/acre or less --
Use split applications of atrazine, e.g. 2/3 prior to April 15 and 1/3 at planting .25
Band apply atrazine at planting .50
Use no atrazine 1.00
Establish buffer strip .25
Incorporate atrazine with ½ inch sprinkler irrigation .60
TOTAL ATRAZINE BMP RUNOFF EFFECTIVENESS (TABRE) ______
Add Reduction in Runoff Figure
Incentive Payment Per Acre $6.00 (GS) or $3.00 (C) X TABRE $______

8. Summary 2006-2017
 1148 growers implemented BMP’s - 91% of those contacted
 218,550 acres of corn & grain sorghum implemented Atrazine
BMP’s
 $3.01 per acre average incentive
 Using KSU effectiveness data – 49.75% reduction in atrazine
runoff predicted
 Actual water quality monitoring – 41.4% reduction
 Annual load reduction – 840 lbs a.i.
• Result of partnership among 6 key players

9. Unified watershed management
via stormwater permit program
Constructed pondsHydrodynamic separator

10. Economic efficiency of sediment
removal in rural vs urban BMPs
Little Ark Watershed Cropland BMP
Effectiveness
BMP
$/Ton TSS,
BMP life
Streambank stabilization $2.30
No-Till $2.87
Conservation Tillage $2.87
Intensive Crop Rotations $4.30
Nutrient Management $4.88
Vegetative Buffers $7.17
Grassed Waterways $8.60
Ponds $13.44
Terraces $18.28
Permanent Vegetation $28.30
Cover Crops $43.01
Urban stormwater BMP
Effectiveness
BMP
$/Ton TSS,
BMP life
Vegetative Buffers $475
Grass filter strip $930
Extended
detention basin
$2,120
Bioretention $4,440
Hydrodynamic
separator
$5,425
Pervious
pavement
$19,130

11. How do we operationalize an offsite
program?

12. 2016-2018 implementation: by the numbers
354 acres (representing 69 of 118 developments)
enrolled in offsite program
Sediment generated from urban
developments: 140 tons TSS yr-1
~ 1590 tons TSS yr-1 offsite
sediment credits enrolled
(496 ac of no-till)
% acres
opting in
offsite
program
% acres
opting
for
onsite
BMPs
Avoided costs: $1.6M by not installing
hydrodynamic separators
2:1 credit ratio

13. Keys to Success
 Local Input
 Trust
 Education
 Partnerships between the agricultural community
and their urban neighbors (WRAPS)
 Non-traditional marketing of BMP
implementation
 Flexibility
 Time
 Monitoring/assessment

14. Extra slides

15. Implementation Goals
 Atrazine from Cropland (2006)
 Sediment from Cropland (2010)
 Nutrients from Cropland and Livestock
 Fecal Coliform Bacteria from Livestock
 Sediment and Nutrients from Streambank and Riparian
Areas
Implementation Goals

16. Implementation Goals
 Reduce atrazine herbicide in water to reach
goal of 3 µg/L, with no seasonal spikes.
 Reduce fecal coliform bacteria in water to <
200 cfu/100 ml water for swimming and <
2,000 cfu/100 ml water for wading (boating
and fishing).
 Reduce nutrients and sediments to achieve
goal of DO > 5mg/L, BOD < 3.5 mg/L, TDS
< 808 mg/L and TSS < 100 mg/L in the Little
Ark

17. Targeted Areas for Atrazine
Targeted Areas

18. Partners
 KDA - Dept. of Conservation
 Ks Dept. of Health and Environment
 EPA 319
 City of Wichita
Stormwater Advisory Board
 K-State Research & Extension

19. Participation
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
70,000
80,000
90,000
100,000
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
AcresinProgram/IncentivePayments($)
Acres in Program
Incentive Payments

20. BMP Preference
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Preplant
Incorporate
Early
Application
Post
Emergence
Application
Reduced Rate Split
Application
No Atrazine
PercentofAcresinProgramByBMP
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

21. Paired HUC Results
0.75
1.21
1.01
2.38
1.56
0.32
1.74
1.12
1.02
0.53
2.21
2.02
2.86
4.86
2.91
0.42
2.27
1.37
1.45
1.14
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
AverageAtrazineConc.(ppb)
BMP's
No BMP's

22. Main Stem Concentrations

23. Rural and Urban Watersheds
Working Together through
Municipal Stormwater Permit
Program

24. Intro: municipal stormwater programs
 Stormwater discharge from
City of Wichita, KS
regulated by MS4 permit
(MS4 = Municipal Separated Storm Sewer)
 Permit includes requirement
to address TMDLs within
MS4 area
 New development and
redevelopment properties
within Wichita required to
address stormwater runoff
quality
Little Arkansas River
Watershed
City of Wichita

25. Storm Water Advisory Board
 With KDHE, City of Wichita SWAB
began exploring logistics of
watershed-based offsite program as
alternative to more traditional onsite
BMP program
 WHY? Potential to target BMPs in
high priority areas of the watershed
= greater economic and
environmental efficiency
Constructed ponds
Hydrodynamic
separator

26.  Sediment credit ratio: Required to purchase 2 offsite sediment
credits for every 1 unit of sediment production onsite
 Most-likely offsite BMP costa: Cost to producer to adopt AND
maintain no-till with intensive crop rotations
 Replacement costs: Cover cost to enroll replacement offsite
BMPs if previous BMPs discontinued
 Technical assistance: costs to enroll and track offsite BMPs
Sediment credit fee based upon...
Spreadsheet tool
developed to assist City in
setting sediment credit fee

27. Offsite BMPs targeted to
priority subwatersheds; 5-
year contact based on
sediment reduction

28. Ron Graber
Watershed Specialist
rgraber@ksu.edu
Trisha Moore
Bio & Ag Engineering
tlcmoore@ksu.edu