Citation:

Impact/Purpose:

The long-term goal of the Belle Fourche River Watershed Assessment Project is to locate and document sources of nonpoint source pollution in the watershed and produce feasible restoration recomendations. The project will provide adequate background information needed to develop workplans for watershed implementation projects to improve sedimentation and nutrient problems with the rivers and streams in the watershed. The project will results in TMDL reports for four 303(d) listed waters. The 303(d) listed waters include: Belle Fourche River, Horse Creek, Whitewood Creek, and Bear Butte Creek.

Description:

The Belle Fourche River is a natural stream that drains portions of Butte, Lawrence, and Meade Counties in South Dakota and flows to the Cheyenne River in Meade County. The river receives runoff from agricultural operations and both the river and its tributaries have experienced declining water quality. The Belle Fourche River Watershed is approximately 3,280 square miles in size in the State of South Dakota and drains approximately 3,750 square miles in Wyoming. The watershed is predominately agricultural land use with grazing and some cropland. Silviculture, mining, and urban are other land uses within the watershed. Mining issues will be addressed in the project using existing data. The project is intended to be the initial phase of a watershed wide restoration project. Through water quality monitoring, stream gauging, stream channel analysis, and land use analysis, the sources of impairment to the stream and the watershed will be documented and feasible alternatives for restoration will be presented in the final project report.

Record Details: