Application Note: Busseron Creek Watershed Partnership Addresses Concerns In A Rural Watershed

As with other watershed organizations, the Busseron Creek Watershed Partnership (BCWP) exists because of surface water quality degradation. In this case, those waters drain 163,231 acres of a watershed that crosses the boundaries of Vigo, Clay, Green, and Sullivan counties in West- Central Indiana.

Typical to many rural areas of the United States, failing private septic systems and outdated municipal sewage systems dump raw waste into creeks and streams. Like most agricultural regions, surface run-off washes detrimental loads of top soil and phosphorus into streams; sub-surface tile systems conveys nitrogen into the same waters. Flood control projects and management strategies from the 1950's and 1960's exacerbate high rain events and rapid storm water run-off from developed areas, further eroding and contributing to pollutant loads – and stream degradation.