Grand River Dam Authority directors revived a decade-old program intended to improve water quality in Oklahoma scenic rivers, approving the purchase of a conservation easement along the Illinois River.
The 30-year easement was the second to be acquired since state lawmakers defunded the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission and folded its operations and oversight authority into the state-owned utility.
Ed Fite, vice president of scenic rivers and water quality at GRDA, said the easement was acquired with some of the proceeds from a federal grant awarded for the management of nonpoint-source water pollution.
"After 30 years the vegetation will have re-established itself, and nonpoint-source pollution becomes less of a concern along those reaches of the river."
The easements create riparian buffers that filter pollutants and sediments from stormwater runoff before it flows into streams and rivers.
Information provided by the Oklahoma Conservation Commission indicate riparian buffers filter out up to 90 percent of the pollutants from stormwater that flows over the surface before it enters a stream.
Vegetated areas, in addition to reducing "the flow of nutrients, sediment and other pollutants, stabilize stream banks and shade stream channels."
Fite said landowners are paid $75 an acre a year for the conservation easements.
Fite said nonpoint-source pollution control programs such as the conservation easements support the goals of the Clean Water Act to protect rivers, lakes and wetland.
Smoot at (918) 684-2901 or dsmoot@muskogeephoenix.com.