MARSHALL COUNTY
SOIL & WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT
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HEADWATERS YELLOW RIVER WATERSHED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Hey Farmers and Landowners! Cost-Share Available for Agricultural and Urban Best Management Practices
Includes: Cover Crops; Waterways; Equipment Modifications for No-till, Precision Nutrient Application, and Cover Crop Seeding; Filter Strips; Animal Exclusion Fencing, and Many More.
To apply, please contact the Marshall County SWCD or your local office listed in the above brochure for St. Joseph, Kosciusko, and Elkhart Counties, or download the documents listed below.
319 Implementation Grant and Cost-Share Program
In 2016, the Marshall County Soil and Water District received a 319 grant from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to develop a Watershed Management Plan. This plan evaluated the health of the Yellow River and investigated problems and possible sources of pollutants entering the Yellow River from the surrounding land or watershed. To help focus future funding and projects in the most efficient way possible, the watershed was divided into sub-watersheds, and each was prioritized based on the estimated amount of pollutants entering the river from that area. Each sub-watershed was then labeled as Tier 1 (most problematic), Tier 2, or Tier 3. The result is pictured in the map below.
Pollutants entering the Yellow River do not only impact water quality locally, but continue to cause problems downstream in the Kankakee, Illinois, and Mississippi Rivers and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico!
Sources of pollutants to the Yellow River include both point and non-point sources of pollutants. Point sources are easy to identify, such as a pipe from a factory or sewage treatment plant. Non-point sources are more difficult to identify and quantify as they are pollutants washed off roads, rooftops, farms, construction sites, and other areas in the watershed. The main pollutants of concern in the Yellow River include sediment, excess nutrients, and E. coli bacteria.
At the end of 2021 the Marshall County SWCD received funding through a 319 Implementation Grant. A portion of these funds are to provide cost-share to fund specific best management practices to address pollutant sources. Agriculture is a major land use in the watershed, so many projects will focus in these areas, but urban and suburban areas also contribute to pollution problems so projects in these areas are eligible for funding as well.
The application process is simple as most of the information can be filled out for you in the office. Guidance on what types of projects may be funded are shown in Table 1 below. Please stop by your local Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) office to apply; or download the application materials, print them out, fill in the required information per the instruction sheet, and either return them to your local SWCD or scan and email the required forms to timothy.kroeker@in.nacdnet.net. If you have any questions, please contact Tim Kroeker at 260-766-1104, or Jodie Overmyer at 574-936-2024 ext. 3.
