Watershed Based Education

The pages on the Watershed Based Education Site contain resources for families, homeowners, and teachers to explore and learn more about local watersheds and how to improve them. The site offers information about resources that Bluegrass Greensource promotes throughout Central Kentucky to engage homeowners in hands-on projects to improve their own watershed, along with grant opportunities to help fund best management practices to improve water quality.

Program Description

Through a generous grant from the U.S. EPA , administered through the Kentucky Division of Water, Bluegrass Greensource is working to improve water quality in several focus watersheds through implementation of the watershed-based plans (WBP) for Clarks Run and Hanging Fork watersheds, both in the Kentucky River Basin, and Hinkston Creek watershed in the Licking River Basin. The main goal of the program is to reduce human and livestock fecal inputs, increase and improve riparian buffer areas to reduce erosion, sedimentation, and nutrient loading in streams, and decrease other non-point source pollutants from urban and agricultural stormwater runoff.

Objectives include educating local homeowners, landowners, and students, enabling better septic system function, enhancing riparian zones, and building watershed stakeholder capacity for the long-term appreciation, understanding, and improvement of each watershed and its tributaries. To reach these objectives, Bluegrass Greensource offers education opportunities to increase knowledge of local water quality issues for local citizens, officials, and K-12 students and collaborates with county partners to provide input and financial and technical support for implementing best management practices.

Check out this video from Caring For Our Watersheds

What is a Watershed?

A watershed is an area of land that water flows across or under and drains to a common body of water. We all live in a watershed and we all have an influence on what happens in our watershed, good and bad. What happens in our small watershed also affects the larger watershed downstream. There are many things we can do to take care of our watersheds and the streams, rivers, and lakes we live near.

What is Stormwater Runoff?

Rainwater or snow melt not absorbed by plants or soaked into the soil flows off the roofs, lawns, roadways, parking lots, parks, and farmland in our watershed. We call this water stormwater runoff. As water runs over these surfaces, it picks up pollutants like litter, dirt, fertilizers, sewage, and pet/livestock waste. In cities, much of the stormwater runoff ends up in storm drains that flow to our streams, rivers, and lakes without any treatment.

Managing Stormwater Runoff:

Only Rain Down the Drain

When it rains and all that water runs off our roofs, driveways, lawns, roadways, parking lots, and other areas it has to go somewhere, right? In many communities in Central KY, stormwater runoff is collected in a separate storm sewer system. This system is a series of storm drains and inlets that collect the stormwater runoff from these surfaces and connect to underground pipes and culverts that carry or convey the stormwater under our cities before eventually ending up in a local stream, river, or lake without being treated. That is why it’s important that only rain goes down the drain!

The Clean Water Journey

Water pollution occurs when substances like chemicals, microorganisms, and sediment are released into a body of water in excess of what the environment can handle, degrading water quality. How we develop the land around us and build around our rivers and streams affects our neighbors downstream, as well as the health of our local waterways. Making decisions on a watershed scale helps to keep the big picture in frame, connecting us all to the waters that we live near!

Kentucky Watershed Viewer:

Explore the Kentucky Watershed Viewer below and zoom in to your home or school to find what watershed you live in and check on the condition of your local stream. Hint~look for the larger watershed or basin you live in, for example the Kentucky River Basin, and then zoom in to look for your local watershed.

This work was funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under §319(h) of the Clean Water Act.

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