Title:

G96-NPS-08 Fulbright Spring Recharge Area

Sponsor:

Watershed Committee of the Ozarks

Project Manager:

Loring Bullard
320 North Main
Springfield, MO 65806-1208
417-886-1127
loring@watershedcommittee.org

Project Period:

5/20/1996 - 4/30/2000

319 Grant Funds:

$80,466.97

Project Description:

Fulbright Spring Recharge Area

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Fulbright Spring has been in use as a public drinking water source by the city of Springfield since the 1880s and continues to supply about twenty percent of the source water on an annual basis. The approximate recharge area, roughly defined in the 1970s, was further refined through a 1990 EPA-funded well-head protection monitoring system study. About one-third of the 23,000 acre inferred recharge area is within the city of Springfield the remainder in the unincorporated area of Greene County. A substantial portion of the spring's flow is derived from losses of surface streamflow in the upper South Dry Sac basin. Sinkholes in the basin have also been shown to contribute flow. City Utilities routinely monitors the spring for a host of Safe Drinking Water Act contaminants. Data indicate that the water quality of the spring remains relatively high in spite of occasional spikes of some parameters such as turbidity and fecal coliform, during storm events. This is not surprising given the open nature of this karst hydrologic system, with its high degree of surface - groundwater interaction.

PRODUCTS AND OBJECTIVES

Fulbright Spring is probably the most easily compromised of any of the city's raw water sources. The largest concern from a water treatment standpoint is organic chemical contamination such as biocides, hydrocarbons and solvents. The use of such materials in the spring recharge area is expected to increase with expanding urbanization. Without a protection program in place as urbanization proceeds, the spring will likely degrade to the point of requiring sophisticated and expensive water treatment processes or abandonment as a source. This project is designed to prevent that possibility.

The three major components of the project are: watershed and spring monitoring, best management practice implementation and monitoring, public education and public involvement.

Project Period: 1996 -- 2000

PROJECT SPONSOR

Watershed Committee of the Ozarks

COOPERATING AGENCY

EPA/DNR

CONTACT

Watershed Committee of the Ozarks
300 West Brower
Springfield, Missouri 65802-3817
Adam Coulter 417-866-1918