A landowner-directed group is set to draft a list of voluntary policies intended to improve water quality in the Lampasas River watershed.

Because parts of the river have failed state standards for bacteria levels and dissolved oxygen, Texas AgriLife Research and the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board are working with landowners to mitigate sources of pollution into the waterway.

A segment of the Lampasas River near U.S. Highway 281 north of Adamsville exceeded fecal coliform limits at the last testing date, in 1999. Dissolved oxygen data taken from August 2002 to September 2004 on North Fork Rocky Creek near U.S. Highway 183 in northern Burnet County indicate that portion of the river’s watershed also failed state standards.

As a result, those parts of the Lampasas River have been classified as “impaired” on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s 303(d) list. People still may fish, swim and use the river for other legal activities, said Lisa Prcin, watershed coordinator for Texas AgriLife Research at the Blackland Research & Extension Center in Temple.

Once a waterway is listed as “impaired,” however, the problems that caused the river to be included on the 303(d) list must be addressed, said Steve Potter of Texas AgriLife Research. Following a voluntary watershed protection plan allows rivershed “stakeholders” to avoid a more stringent “total maximum daily load” plan. TMDLs are mandatory and impose limits on the amount of pollutants from all sources -- including agricultural runoff -- that may enter a waterway.

At a recent Lampasas meeting, area residents were selected to help direct a steering committee and several work groups that will formulate the watershed protection plan. The Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board and the Environmental Protection Agency will review the plan for completeness, although those entities let river users set water quality policies, said Aaron Wendt, statewide watershed planning coordinator for TSSWCB.

“All the solutions come from the stakeholders,” Wendt said at the recent meeting.

A steering committee meeting will be held in December, and watershed tours are planned tentatively for Feb. 16-19.

Steering committee work group meetings will be held from March to September 2010, and the steering committee in October will submit a final watershed protection plan.

Grant funding may be available for some water quality management practices, Potter said.

Steering committee members for the Lampasas River watershed’s upper section are: rancher Bettie Black of Star, Hamilton County Commissioner Dickie Clary, Mills County Commissioner Jed Garren and Evant ranchers Chris Meis and Rodney Parrish.

Middle section steering committee members are Lampasas City Manager Michael Stoldt; Danny Stephens, OMI wastewater treatment operator; and Lampasas County landowners Mickey Edwards, Travis Herring, Ed Lilley and Henry Stoneham.

In addition, several steering committee members represent the lower portion of the watershed. They are Jenna Barrett, from the Brazos River Authority; city of Killeen engineer Kristina Ramirez; Joan Kelley of Killeen, representing Keep Killeen Beautiful; veterinarian and rancher Woody Ray of Killeen; landowner Judy Parker of Killeen and Bradley Ware, a rancher from Ding Dong.

Others who live near or are affected by the Lampasas River watershed may request to join the steering committee or one or more work groups. Work groups consider issues ranging from wastewater infrastructure to agriculture and wildlife as they make suggestions for a watershed protection plan.