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James River Basin Partnership
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Table Rock Lake was created in Southwest Missouri in the late 1950s. It is a popular recreational lake, drawing millions of visitors a year. The waters in this region have been historically known as high quality resources. Fishing for bass, crappie, and other game fish, boating swimming, scuba diving, and other fresh water activities have been vital components to the area's economy. There have also been plans proposed recently to use Table Rock Lake as a drinking water source for the ever growing community of Branson. The growth of the area is phenomenal and is continuing. Branson, although not in the James River Basin, relies on the quality of the area's lakes for its economic viability. Branson housed over 6,000,000 visitors in 1994. It is expected that this number will increase to over 10,000,000 by the year 2000. The James River is a major tributary to Table Rock Lake and has portions of the city of Springfield within its watershed.
Water quality monitoring results from recent years show trends of higher total phosphorus, total nitrogen, and chlorophyll levels and lower Secchi disk readings in Table Rock Lake near the dam. One of the main purposes of the study is to discover the sources of nutrient enrichment in the lake. Increased loading of nutrients and sediments from recent development and from animal agriculture in the watershed have promoted algal growth and decreased water clarity. Nutrient rich wastewater additions come to Table Rock Lake from Springfield to the James River Arm of the lake and from numerous small treatment facilities as well as from nonpoint sources in the watershed.
A watershed partnership is designed to use the Table Rock Lake study and the coordination of all of its members to produce a whole-basin watershed management plan. It is important and appropriate to study the lake and watershed at this time to determine the causes of the decline. This will give us solid facts to use in a complete watershed strategy.
PRODUCT AND OBJECTIVES
Form a James River Watershed Partnership composed of people who live work, and play in the James River Basin and will be designed to protect that watershed. The partnership coordinates with the University of Missouri's Table Rock Lake Water Quality Study to determine more about the apparent decrease in water quality. The final output from this watershed partnership will be the development of a whole watershed plan.
Project Period: 1996 -- 1998
PROJECT SPONSOR
Southwest Missouri RCandD
CONTACT
Southwest Missouri RCandD
Plaza Southwest Center
W. Hwy. 60
Republic, Missouri 65738
Rita Mueller
telephone: 417-732-6485
email: rita.mueller@mo.usda.gov
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