Quality Water For The Brazos Community
Quality Water for the Brazos Community (QWBC) was a six-year proactive water quality project for the Brazos River Authority, with technical management by Alan Plummer Associates, Inc., and funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The project focused on protecting water quality in a region experiencing tremendous growth in poultry operations. The river authority and area officials were determined to avoid another Erath County; an EPA objective was to develop a model program that could be replicated by other communities nationwide.
WaterPR developed and managed all public outreach activities for the project. We created the name and logo, developed an informational brochure and several fact sheets, wrote and produced regular newsletters mailed to a list of more than 1,000, conducted focus groups representing disparate interests, and created and disseminated media advisories on meetings and press conferences and direct mail campaigns to specific stakeholder groups.
One special initiative within that project was publicizing the availability of matching grants from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) for agricultural producers to implement Best Management Practices to protect water quality. We developed targeted mailing lists of ag producers in the eligible counties and distributed a simple explanation of the EQIP funding and how to apply.
A media event announcing the incentives featured representatives of the BRA, USDA NRCS, EPA, and Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board, as well as the Brazos County judge. The press conference and follow-up media coverage generated an overwhelming volume of applications for incentive funding: farmers and ranchers in the Brazos Valley Water Quality GPA submitted more than 130 applications seeking a total of $2.5 million in funding. NRCS approved 27 applications for a variety of measures for protecting water quality, including:
- constructing poultry litter storage houses designed to minimize run-off;
- fencing and developing alternative water sources to keep animals out of waterways;
- planting high nutrient uptake grasses to minimize accumulation of excess nutrients in the soil; and
- developing waste utilization plans to manage land-applied nutrients.
“This is one of the most exciting and successful EQIP projects our team has ever worked on,” said NRCS agronomist Rick Leopold, “and it’s all due to the broad support of the entire stakeholder community.”
Funding ultimately totaled more than $770,000, a record amount awarded in the first year of an EQIP program. These funds supported 27 projects to establish facilities and practices to enhance water quality protection at operations associated with the poultry industry in the Bryan/College Station area.
In 2005, the project promoted special EQIP funding for off-site uses of litter, again with outstanding success.
The project also promoted activities more focused on municipal concerns. In 2004, we sponsored two focus group sessions on water quality concerns of smaller communities. Recognizing the diversity of concerns, we scheduled one session in Bryan (in the upper reaches of the project area) and the other in Richmond (in the lower reaches). Results of the sessions were incorporated into the recommendations contained in the implementation plan of the project.
QWBC was honored by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality with a 2006 Environmental Excellence Award.
