Watershed Notice

Your property is within the city of Bandon’s water supply watershed.   Click Here  to view the map of the watershed. It is important that you take steps to prevent pollutants including sediment, and residential and agricultural chemicals, from entering the City’s water supply. The World Wide Web has numerous websites relating to water quality protection, a few of which are presented below. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Oregon State University (OSU) Extension Service, as well as various states and municipalities all have websites that relate to preventing contaminants from entering surface and ground waters. These resources provide common sense ways to prevent or minimize unnecessary contamination as a result of improper use and disposal of household chemicals, agricultural fertilizers, fuels, and poor forest management practices. Here are a few:

RESIDENTIAL: Landowners could inadvertently pollute the water that runs off their property by over-fertilizing lawns and gardens, or improperly disposing household chemicals and fuels. Use of lawn fertilizers, the extent of impervious surfaces, and proper management of septic systems are important considerations in residential areas. Numerous documents on septic systems are available from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its Cooperative Extension Service partners.

EPA’s guide to Source Water Information can be found at . . .

http://water.epa.gov/drink/index.cfm (There are plenty of links follow!)

The Home*A*Syst / Farm*A*Syst program at the University of Wisconsin is an good source of information regarding residential pollutants. The contact in Oregon is . . .

Gail Glick Andrews
116 Gilmore Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331-3906
Phone: 541-737-6294
Fax: 541-737-2082
Email: gail.glick.andrews@oregonstate.edu

WOODLANDS

Sloppy logging practices and poorly designed logging roads have been known to cause high levels of sediment in surface waters. The Oregon Forest Practices Act is designed to prevent excessive sedimentation. OSU has a good website regarding these issues . . .

http://extensionweb.forestry.oregonstate.edu/

OSU also has a 39-page handbook of forestry practices for small woodlot owners, which can be found at . . . http://extensionweb.forestry.oregonstate.edu/

AGRICULTURAL

The EPA has a website focused on properly managing agricultural fertilizer applications so as to prevent contamination of drinking water. Improper management of fertilizers can move into surface water through field runoff or leach into groundwater. Excessive use of nitrogen-rich fertilizer, for example, can lead to nitrate pollution of ground or surface water. Nitrogen is biologically transformed to nitrate, which is highly soluble and mobile in water. If it moves with percolating water out of the soil, it becomes unavailable for plant uptake and can enter the water supply. Fertilizer application timing and methods are important factors in determining how much fertilizer is lost form agricultural use.

Good sources of information can be found at the OSU Extension website . . .

http://extension.oregonstate.edu, as well as Colorado and Kansas State University Cooperative Extension Services.