A Best Management Practice being installed under a Water Quality Management Plan. A water quality management program was created by a law passed in 1993 by the 73rd Texas Legislature known as the Senate Bill 503 Program. Kleberg and Kenedy counties are in the Senate Bill 503 (SB – 503) priority area because of their location within the designated Coastal Zone of Texas.

The law designated the State Soil and Water Conservation Board as the lead agency in Texas to abate agricultural and silvicultural non-point source pollution.

“The program has provided the incentive for landowners and operators to implement various conservation practices on the landscape to maintain or improve their natural resources,” says Trey Quackenbush, director on the Kleberg-Kenedy Soil and Water Conservation District. “Funds are distributed on a first-come-first-serve basis.”

The local Kleberg-Kenedy Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), who administers the program locally, receives a limited amount of funding from the state around Sept. 1 of each year for producers to plan and apply best management practices (BMP’s) on their land.

“Our local Board has seen the results of application of practices in some 100 water quality management plans since the program’s inception.” says John Prukop, Chairman of the Kleberg-Kenedy Soil and Water Conservation District Board.

The 1993 act amended the Water Code and granted certified water quality management plans the same legal status as the Texas Council on Environmental Quality point source pollution permits.

The water quality management plan development and implementation program for agricultural and silvicultural land is established under the authority of this law.

The bill provides for costshare assistance to help pay for some of the cost of installing water quality management practices (best

educ The f Meal management practices) on private property.

In summation a Water Quality Management Plan is a site specific plan developed and approved by Soil and Water Conservation Districts for Agricultural

King and Silivicultural

lands which includes

Cham appropriate land treatment

practices, production

e co ham practices, management measures, technologies or combinations thereof.

The plan is to achieve a level of pollution prevention or abatement determined by the State Board in consultation with the local Soil and Water Conservation District to be consistent with state water quality standards.

For more information on water quality management plans and the SB-503 Program, please come by the SWCD office at 401 East King Avenue, Suite 100 in Kingsville or call at 592- 0309 Ext. 3.