Watershed planning and improvement is not a small task – the right tools and resources can make all the difference in successful watershed planning and implementation projects.
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Potential Funding Sources for Watershed Improvement
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Watershed protection takes funding as well as action. Here are some resources that can help:
- Section 319 Nonpoint Source Grants: Funding available from the department.
- Funding Resources for Watershed Protection and Restoration: From the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): help finding grants, loans, and cost-sharing opportunities.
- Water Protection Program Financial Assistance Center: The department offers assistance through the State Revolving Fund to help communities plan, finance and build water infrastructure projects.
- Financial and Technical Assistance for Farmers: Get help to implement conservation practices from MoDNR’s Soil and Water Conservation Program and your county Soil and Water Conservation District, and from the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). NRCS also provides assistance and incentives for voluntary conservation practice implementation through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), and has additional programs for technical and financial assistance for agricultural producers and rural communities.
- Community Conservation Funding Opportunities: The Missouri Department of Conservation offers communities and partners a number of grant and cost-share options to assist with everything from green development to wildlife habitat to enhancing outdoor recreation opportunities.
- Animal Waste Treatment Loan Program: This Missouri Department of Agriculture program provides loans to help finance animal waste treatment systems for independent livestock and poultry producers at below conventional interest rates.
- Environmental Justice Grants and Resources: The primary purpose of EPA’s environmental justice grant programs is to support and empower communities as they develop and implement solutions that significantly address environmental and/or public health issues at the local level.
- EPA’s Water Topics: Visit this page for links to information about infrastructure finance, drinking water/wastewater resiliency, and other helpful resources.
- Developing a Sustainable Finance Plan: EPA’s Watershed Academy training module to help watershed organizations increase their impact through financial planning and acquiring sustainable funding.
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Grant Application Preparation
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• Grant Writing Basics blog: From Grants.gov.
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Nonpoint Source Pollution and Watersheds
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Learn about watersheds and nonpoint source pollution.
- Watershed Basics: Learn what a watershed is, and why it matters to water quality.
- How’s My Waterway: Find your local watershed, plus data and local volunteer groups.
- Polluted Runoff: Nonpoint Source (NPS) Pollution: EPA’s NPS home page.
- Healthy Watersheds Protection: The EPA’s watersheds page.
- Missouri’s Nonpoint Source Management Plan: A plan to address nonpoint source pollution statewide.
- Source Water Protection Program: Learn about protection of sources for drinking water.
- State Water Planning: Learn about the plan to address long-term statewide water needs.
- U.S. EPA Water Topics page: Explore a variety of water quality topics.
- Clean Water Act Section 303(d): Impaired Waters and Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs): From U.S. EPA - Identifying polluted waters and developing plans to restore them.
- EPA's Watershed Academy: Online training in watershed management.
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Informational Mapping and Analysis Tools
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- How’s My Waterway: Find your local watershed, plus data and local volunteer groups.
- Model My Watershed: An online app to map and model your watershed using tools to analyze land use, soil data, stormwater runoff and water quality impacts, and impacts of different conservation or development scenarios.
- Missouri Watersheds: Interactive map showing Missouri’s HUC-8 and HUC-12 watersheds.
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Water Quality and Assessment Information
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- Water Quality Assessment and Impaired Waters: Learn about how the department assesses water quality conditions in the state.
- Missouri Water Quality 305(b) Report and 303(d) List: Check out water quality conditions in Missouri; view the state’s 305(b) Integrated Report, 303(d) List of Impaired Waters, TMDLs, and associated assessment information.
- Water Quality Assessment Viewer: Interactive map showing Missouri’s impaired waters; add layers like stormwater outfalls, monitoring sites, CAFOs, toxic event locations, etc.; use the layer list ellipsis (…) to change a layer’s visibility range, enable pop-ups for available information, etc.
- Impaired Waters and Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) Viewer: Interactive map showing Missouri’s impaired waters, TMDL locations, and TMDL watersheds.
- Missouri Stream Team: A volunteer organization of citizens concerned with Missouri streams, Stream Teams act to help restore and protect our streams; among many activities includes Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring (VWQM) – with Introductory Level training workshops offered every spring.
- Who’s Monitoring Your Watershed?: Interactive map showing Missouri Stream Team Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring (VWQM) sites and associated data; data can be requested from department VWQM staff.
- WATERS: U.S. EPA’s Query Tool for Water allows user friendly access to EPA’s Watershed Assessment, Tracking and Environmental Results System (WATERS), which unites water quality information from several independent and unconnected databases.
- International Stormwater BMP Database: A partnership of EPA and other public, private and nonprofit entities, this database project provides tools and resources for urban BMP use, including BMP Performance Summaries and other tools, and guidance for ensuring high quality data collection and analysis for assessing impacts of urban stormwater BMPs.
- How’s My Waterway: Find your local watershed, plus data and local volunteer groups.
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Watershed Based Planning
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Watershed based plans (WBPs) developed using Section 319 subgrant funding must be accepted by EPA and the department; accepted WBPs are then eligible for additional Section 319 funding for plan implementation on a competitive basis. WBPs may be developed without Section 319 funding, but for all plans, adherence to planning requirements and guidance are critical to plan acceptance and subsequent 319 funding eligibility for plan implementation.
- Section 319 Watershed Based Planning: Learn about watershed based planning, and minimum requirements for Section 319 subgrant funded planning projects.
- Resources for Watershed Planning: EPA webpage with important planning resources, including:
- Handbook for Developing Watershed Plans to Restore and Protect Our Waters: EPA’s detailed handbook for guiding development of a watershed based plan that will be acceptable to EPA (a must for 319 funding) and that will bring success in achieving its water quality goals.
- A Quick Guide to Developing Watershed Plans to Restore and Protect Our Waters
- Critical Source Area Identification and BMP Selection
- Nutrient and Sediment Estimation Tools for Watershed Protection
- International Stormwater BMP Database: A partnership of EPA and other public, private and nonprofit entities, this database project provides tools and resources for urban BMP selection and use, including best management practices (BMP) Performance Summaries and other tools.
- Urban and Agricultural BMP Mode of Action and Pollutants Addressed chart: Guidance for selection of best management practices based on the pollutants addressed and the BMP's mode of action; BMPs prescribed in a WBP must specifically address the watershed’s impairment pollutant(s).
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Watershed Models
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Watershed modeling is a very useful way to help determine what areas of a watershed are most in need of best management practice (BMP) implementation to address nonpoint source (NPS) issues, and which BMPs would be most effective to solve NPS issues there. If Section 319 funding is being used for watershed planning or implementation, watershed modeling will most likely be needed to calculate pollutant load reductions.
The modeling application chosen will depend on the needs of the project. Below are two commonly used public domain applications used in Section 319 funded projects:
- Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT): SWAT is a commonly used model developed to quantify the impact of land management practices in complex watersheds. SWAT is a public domain software enabled model supported by the USDA Agricultural Research Service.
- Spreadsheet Tool for Estimating Pollutant Loads (STEPL): EPA’s STEPL tool is a commonly used application for calculating pollutant load reduction for Section 319 projects. As of April 2022, EPA is transitioning from the STEPL spreadsheet model to the online Pollutant Load Estimation Tool (PLET); users are encouraged to explore PLET as a more efficient approach to modeling needs.
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Education and Outreach Tools
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- EPA's Nonpoint Source Outreach Toolbox: Resources to help develop an effective and targeted outreach campaign.
- Getting in Step: a Guide to Effective Outreach in Your Watershed: EPA’s flagship resource for how to maximize the effectiveness of public outreach campaigns to reduce NPS and as a Watershed Academy training module.
- Getting Your Feet Wet with Social Marketing: A social marketing guide for watershed programs.
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Quality Assurance/ Quality Control Requirements, Guidance and Resources
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In order to ensure high quality data collection and analysis outcomes, both implementation and watershed based planning projects require a quality assurance project plan (QAPP) for any environmental data collection activities (e.g. water quality monitoring), use of secondary data, and watershed or water quality modeling. Since QAPPs must be approved by the department, they must follow departmental and EPA guidance and requirements.
- EPA Quality Management Tools for Projects: Information, resources and training regarding QAPPs.
- EPA Requirements for Quality Assurance Project Plans (QA/R-5): Defines specifications for QAPPs prepared for activities funded by EPA.
- Guidance for Quality Assurance Project Plans, EPA QA/G-5: EPA’s guidance to organizations developing QAPPs that address the specifications listed in EPA Requirements for QA Project Plans (QA/R-5).
- Guidance for Quality Assurance Project Plans for Modeling (G-5M): EPA’s guidance on developing QAPPs for modeling projects.
- Managing the Quality of Environmental Data at EPA Region 7: Quality assurance resources from EPA Region 7.
- QAPP Guidance for Missouri's Section 319 NPS Projects: MoDNR QAPP overview for Section 319 NPS projects planning environmental data collection activities; based on EPA requirements, this document discusses the various Section 319 NPS project QAPP levels and the QAPP elements that must be addressed per level.
- MoDNR QAPP Template for Section 319 NPS Projects: A template for environmental data collection QAPP development.
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Department-accepted Watershed Based Plans
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Locally-led efforts have resulted in the development of a number of department-accepted Watershed Based Plans (WBPs). Section 319 funding may be used to implement or update these department-accepted plans. Plans more than five years old must be updated and accepted in order to be eligible for implementation funding. For more information about specific plans, contact the Nonpoint Source Program via email at MoDNR.NPSprogram@dnr.mo.gov.
Currently Eligible for Section 319 Implementation Funding
- Black Creek (Shelby County)
- Deer Creek (St. Louis County)
- North and Middle Fabius Rivers
- James River
- Keifer Creek (Meramec River)
- Lake of the Ozarks (6 HUC-12 Watersheds)
- Upper Little Sac River
- Perry County Karst
- Spring River
- Town Branch and Piper Creek
Plans in Progress: Eligible for Section 319 Implementation Funding once completed.
- Blue River (Kansas City)
- Clarks Fork (Cole County)
- Cuivre River
- Greater Bonne Femme
- Lake Mozingo
- Lake Taneycomo
- Lower Grand River