USGS Completes Nonpoint Source Monitoring Project

The US Geologic Survey (USGS) has completed a streambank fencing and riparian buffer study as part of a 10-year national monitoring project. 

The study took place from 1991-2001 in the Mill Creek Basin of Lancaster County, PA, and was titled: "Effects of Streambank Fencing of Near-Stream Pasture Land on a Small Watershed in Lancaster County, Pa." The study indicated that a small vegetative buffer width along a stream in pasture land can have a positive influence on surface-water quality, benthic macroinvertebrates, and near-stream shallow ground-water quality. Streambank fencing resulted in decreases in nitrogen, total phosphorus, and suspended sediment concentrations at the outlet of the treatment basin relative to untreated sites. These results indicate that nutrient management, in conjunction with streambank fencing, is important in helping to control nutrient loadings to streams in this agricultural setting. http://pubs.water.usgs.gov/fs2006-3112/