Prioritization of BMPs to maximize water quantity and quality benefits in the Paw Paw River Watershed, Michigan

To address potential water resource conflicts and to implement water resource protection policies, innovative approaches and tools will be required.  In Michigan’s Paw Paw River watershed, conservation plans call for the implementation of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) to restore groundwater resources and reduce sedimentation.  An industrial water user with a large, local facility was interested in sponsoring offsets for its water use.  Utilizing several hydrologic evaluation tools, we developed an approach for using agricultural BMPs to begin locally offsetting this water use in an economically efficient and ecologically effective manner.  We used 1) the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to evaluate groundwater recharge rates, 2) the High Impact Targeting System (HIT) to evaluate sedimentation, and 3) results of the Michigan Water Withdrawal Assessment Tool to identify the susceptibility of subwatersheds to adverse resource impacts with water withdrawal.  By combining the results of these models, we identified priority areas for implementing BMPs at subwatershed and field scales to maximize water quantity and quality benefits. We are now partnering with the county conservation district to implement BMPs in priority areas.  Groundwater recharge benefits specific to each BMP type will be calculated using a spatially-explicit, online calculator developed for the project.