Celebrating Progress

Looking Ahead

See information about the Clean Water Act and its effects in Kentucky at the following Web sites:
CWA in Kentucky Home Page
History and Background
Successes (KPDES / Nonpoint Source / State Revolving Fund)
Trends
What We Are Doing  
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World Watershed Summit

Successes
Nonpoint source success stories

Mammoth Cave - The unusual geology that produced Mammoth Cave also makes it vulnerable to water quality degradation. Rain that falls in the karst sinkhole plain flows into some 15,000 active sinkholes. The water travels through underground streams and caves, including Mammoth Cave, before emerging in the Green River.

Many pollution sources were threatening the Mammoth Cave area, including discharges from domestic and industrial wastewater treatment facilities, agricultural activities and failing or improperly installed on-site wastewater systems. Hundreds of livestock feedlots and dairy operations also exist in the watershed.

The Mammoth Cave/Karst Area Water Quality Project was designed to reduce pollution in the park area and the surrounding karst sinkhole plain. The Division of Water used $531,700 of its Section 319(h) grant from FY1991 through FY1993 to support the project's water quality monitoring, technical assistance and demonstration farms.

Triplett Creek - The Triplett Creek Project, to reduce septic system effluent in Rowan County's Triplett Creek watershed, was developed and implemented by the Gateway District Health Department in response to high in-stream levels of bacteria, mostly downstream from older residential clusters. The overall goal of the project was to reduce pathogen loadings into Triplett Creek by reducing or eliminating the number of unpermitted straight-pipe discharges, increasing compliance with home septic regulations, installing and demonstrating best management practices (BMPs) (including constructed wetland wastewater treatment systems), and initiating a maintenance and management educational program for owners of home septic systems and other on-site wastewater treatment technologies.

Graduate students from Morehead State University's Environmental Science program monitored the watershed during all phases of the project, which also featured an extensive public education and outreach component: walking surveys, direct contact with homeowners, news media releases, feature articles, radio and television interviews, and presentations to various student and community groups.

Triplett Creek was part of an ongoing effort by the Nonpoint Source Section of Kentucky's Division of Water to explore innovative strategies to address on-site wastewater treatment problems in low-income rural areas. Project staff have been advocating the development of a statewide cost-share, plus a low-interest loan program to encourage low-income rural residents to comply with on-site wastewater treatment regulations.

Replacing failed septic system components, eliminating straight pipes, and installing demonstration systems in places that have substandard systems are the obvious ways to reduce human pathogens in the watershed.

This project's extensive public education outreach program, BMP demonstrations, and successful formation of partnerships have fostered tremendous contributions and progress toward assuring a bright future for the Triplett Creek watershed and its inhabitants.

Rock Creek - Rock Creek above White Oak Junction is a beautiful boulder-strewn stream designated as a Kentucky Wild River.  It is the premier mountain trout stream in Kentucky.  Below White Oak Junction, acid mine drainage (AMD) from more than 40 coal mine portals and eight pyrite-rich refuse dumps had decimated aquatic life and rendered the stream virtually lifeless. The Rock Creek Task Force, a group or 12 state and federal agencies and conservation organizations, was formed to find solutions to the degraded water quality in the lower Rock Creek Watershed.  Funding was provided by several of the Task Force partners, including an EPA 319 Clean Water Action Plan grant, an Appalachian Clean Streams Initiative grant, a PRIDE grant from NOAA, Kentucky Abandoned Mine Land's annual grant and a USGS cost-share agreement.

In 1998, a biological and water-monitoring program began in the lower Rock Creek watershed.  Acid loading was calculated; and in spring of 2000, dosing of selected tributaries with sand-sized limestone particles began.  Within two months, the flow out of Rock Creek into the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River changed from net acidic to net alkaline.  After four months, similar results were obtained in White Oak Creek, a major source of AMD to Rock Creek.

In the fall of 2000, construction began on a reclamation project targeting several of the worst AMD sites in the lower Rock Creek watershed.  Pyrite-rich refuse was removed from the banks of Rock Creek. The refuse was hauled to a pre-existing refuse fill in Roberts Hollow. The refuse was mixed with agricultural limestone and place in a compacted fill. Open limestone channels were installed, routing AMD through the limestone before discharging into the stream, and a modified vertical flow system was installed at a site with limited distance between the AMD source and the receiving stream.  Dosing with limestone sand continued monthly with permanent dosing stations established farther upstream in the impacted tributaries.

Removal of the pyrite-rich refuse and revegetation of the three-acre Water Tank Hollow site has resulted in a reduction of 500 tons of sediment and more than 80 tons of acidity entering Rock Creek annually from the site. Reclamation at the Roberts Hollow site has resulted in similar reductions in sediment load and acid load entering the receiving stream. Acid loading from Rock Creek into the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River has been reduced from a monthly average of 110 metric tons (121) US tons) to near zero after completion of the project. Fish populations are rebounding with increases in numbers, diversity of species and numbers of intolerant species. Sections of the streams that were once dead or severely impacted by AMD are being re-colonized by fish.

Kentucky Agricultural Water Quality Act - In 1994, Kentucky's legislature passed an Agricultural Water Quality Act that requires the use of best management practices on all logging and farming operations larger than 10 acres. A 15-member panel, the Kentucky Agriculture Water Quality Authority, also established by the act, representing farmers and loggers, environmental groups, agriculture and forestry agencies, commodity groups and industries, then examined water quality data and evaluated management practices.

With additional input from 250 producers and commodity groups, the Authority developed a manual of best management practices (BMPs) to be used by all state agencies. The manual includes 58 BMPs and encompasses a broad range of land uses: livestock, crops, farmsteads, and silviculture. A special category was also created for stream protection management.

Kentucky farmers and loggers must develop and implement a management plan based on this selection of BMPs. A producer's notebook that accompanies the manual provides a series of questions to help them make appropriate selections among the practices. Enforcement will rely primarily on complaints or documented water quality problems. A "bad actor" protocol will be the enforcement arm for implementing this statute.

If documented water quality problems are occurring because of agricultural operations, these operations will be reviewed and if they have not implemented all appropriate BMPs, they will be given another opportunity to do so. Should a producer fail to comply with this statute, the producer is subject to a "notice of violation" and enforcement action and may no longer be eligible to participate in cost-share programs.

Elkhorn Creek - Elkhorn Creek drains 311,000 acres in Fayette, Franklin, Scott and Woodford counties in Kentucky. At one time, the stream was ranked among the best in the nation for smallmouth bass fishing. It continues to be a valuable recreational resource and has provided an emergency source of drinking water during prolonged summer droughts.

The Elkhorn Creek watershed has been identified as impaired due to sediment, nutrient and pathogen loading from nonpoint and point sources of pollution. Livestock production is important in the watershed and potentially contributes a significant part of the nonpoint source pollutant loading. Direct access of livestock to streams in the watershed contributes to the stream degradation. This degradation affects water quality, aquatic habitat and recreation activities. Primary contact recreation (swimming) and warm water aquatic habitat uses are being adversely affected in much of the watershed.

Traditional methods of excluding livestock from streams and providing livestock water supply are often not cost-effective or practical. However, promising fencing systems and water supply alternatives are available. The principal objective of this project is to demonstrate to farmers four alternatives for managing livestock: the ram pump; the pasture pump (cattle-activated pump); the solar-powered water pump; and use of limited-access watering points, using modern electric fencing components.

These systems have the potential to protect stream quality while providing a cleaner, safer water supply for livestock. To facilitate acceptance of the new management practices, four demonstration farms were located in the watershed. Because this project emphasizes use of nontraditional best management practices (BMPs), the use of field days as an educational tool is very important and is an integral part of the project.

See more Kentucky Clean Water Act success stories at the following sites:
State revolving fund successes   
KPDES successes