We all depend on clean water daily. Whether it is for drinking, bathing, cooking, watering plants, or supplying animals and livestock with water, for just about everything we depend on water. In Georgia alone, we use approximately 5.8 billion gallons of water per day. Therefore, everyone should agree that protecting water quality is a top priority.
The North Fork Broad River 319 Project is a project that focuses on water quality. In the Water Quality in Georgia, 1998-1999, Attachment I, Addition of Waters to Georgia’s Section 303(d) List, for impacted biota and habitat, sediment was listed as the pollutant of concern for the North Fork Broad River (NFBR). Therefore, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) developed a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for sediment in the NFBR. This is what sparked an interest in developing a project that would address the sediment problem in the NFBR with the objectives of the project being to implement components of the TMDL for sediment and to reduce sediment loads from upland non-point sources by 65% within the NFBR watershed.
In continuing efforts to improve and maintain the quality of Georgia’s water resources, the NFBR 319 Project has available cost-share dollars to implement Best Management Practices (BMPs). Best Management Practices are voluntary conservation techniques landowners or public lands can use to effectively reduce levels of sediment in runoff. This assistance grant can provide a means to implement BMP’s without having to bear the full cost of installation. These Federal Clean Water Act dollars are available to individuals in Franklin and Stephens Counties within the North Fork Broad River watershed area who are willing to demonstrate sediment reducing BMPs. Cost-sharing for these practices will be approximately 60% of the average installation cost with the landowner or public networks providing 40% of the cost either with monetary funds or labor on the project.
Fencing out animals from streams, stream access ramps, and stream revetments are just a few of the many BMP’s that can be installed through the North Fork Broad River 319 Project.
