(2018) Lamar Lake-North Fork Spring River Watershed - NWQI

Scope

The Missouri State Office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) asked the Ozarks Environmental and Water Resources Institute (OEWRI) at Missouri State University (MSU) to submit a proposed plan and budget for a pilot watershed assessment study for the Lamar Lake - North Fork Spring River Watershed.  The project area is a 12-digit hydrologic unit code (HUC-110702070206) watershed located within the larger Spring River Watershed in Barton County, Missouri that includes the City of Lamar and the drinking water supply impoundment located there. 

This assessment is part of the National Water Quality Initiative (NWQI) aimed at reducing nutrients and sediment in the nation’s rivers and streams.  The goal of the NWQI program is for the NRCS and its partners to work with landowners to implement voluntary conservation practices that improve water quality in high-priority watersheds while maintaining agricultural productivity.  The purpose of this assessment is to provide NRCS field staff the necessary information on locations within the watershed where soil, slope, and land use practices have the highest pollution potential and to identify conservation practices can be the most beneficial to improve water quality. 

Objectives

  1. Complete a comprehensive inventory of existing data in the watershed including information related to geology, soils, hydrology, climate, land use, and any existing biological or chemical monitoring data available;
  2. Perform a resource assessment of the watershed that includes analysis of the data gathered in the watershed inventory that includes identification of nonpoint source pollutants, water quality impairments, rainfall-runoff characteristics, and a field-based stream bank conditions assessment;
  3. Provide NRCS staff with information on the resource concerns within the watershed, specific field conditions that contribute that most to the water quality impairment, and what conservation practices should be implemented for the existing conditions to get the most water quality benefit.  

Documents

Funding

U.S. Department of Agriculture

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