Task force looks for ways to improve water quality in and around Brazos County

By MANDY SPIKES | Central Texas Edition

Cutline: Lynne Moss, a member of the Brazos County Watershed Task Force committee, meets with fellow members in Bryan to discuss water quality issues. Photo by Mandy Spikes

April 1, 2004 -- Due to recent agricultural activity in streams and lakes around the Brazos County area, the Watershed Task Force committee held a meeting on March 24 in Bryan to discuss water quality around the area and ways to help with this issue in the watershed.

Lynne Moss, with Camp, Dresser, and McKee, Inc. and a member of the task committee, discussed her research findings with fellow committee members and ideas to help improve the Brazos River watershed in these agricultural areas.

"There are many different agricultural practices being helped in the lower basin of the Brazos River watershed. What we need to figure out is what are the best management practices for these activities and a strategy to work these practices."

She explained that the first thing that was done was mapping of the area to see the various agricultural uses. "What we are looking at is a lot of cropland and pastureland in the areas. We are looking at both types of land together."

Information from the 1997 ag census was used to see the type of cropland that is around the area. The ag census is done every five years and Moss explained that by the time the final plan for the watershed is in place, the 2002 census will be used. "The bottom line is that the land and farm numbers are pretty high. There is a small portion of cropland, but we are mainly looking at a lot of pastureland.

"Cropland use is defined as a variety of things. There are many categories as far as the census is concerned. The primary crops that the ag census had listed was a lot of cotton, sorghum, and rice - these are the predominate crops. There is also a lot of livestock production, both from poultry and non-poultry."

The best management practices are conservation practices that the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) agency has in order to see what the area will be dealing with. "We tried to pick conservation practices that weren't rated too low by the NRCS in order to get a list of things that benefited water quality.

"What we ended up with is a list of conservation practices that promote water quality without harming other types of practices," Moss stated.