Connecting Community and Water
Check out our Connecting Community and Water site and explore watershed and water quality topics, learn more ways to get involved in your local watershed, find student activities you can do at home, and much more! Our hope is to connect families, students, and communities to their local waterways with a comprehensive tool for learning and fun. Join us!
Watershed Improvement Program
The Clarks Run, Hanging Fork, and Hinkston Creek Watershed Improvement Program is designed to improve water quality in the focus watersheds through implementation of the watershed-based plans (WBP) for Clarks Run and Hanging Fork watersheds, both in the Kentucky River Basin, and Hinkston Creek watershed in the Licking River Basin. The main goal of the program is to reduce human and livestock fecal inputs, increase and improve riparian buffer areas to reduce erosion, sedimentation, and nutrient loading in streams, and decrease other non-point source pollutants from urban and agricultural stormwater runoff.
Objectives include educating local homeowners, landowners, and students, enabling better septic system function, enhancing riparian zones, and building watershed stakeholder capacity for the long-term appreciation, understanding, and improvement of each watershed and its tributaries. To reach these objectives, Bluegrass Greensource offers education opportunities to increase knowledge of local water quality issues for local citizens, officials, and K-12 students and collaborates with county partners to provide input and financial and technical support for implementing best management practices. This work was founded in part by a grant from the U.S. EPA under §319(h) of the Clean Water Act through the Kentucky Division of Water.
Cost-Share Programs Available
- Septic System Pumpout Program – Fully covered up to $450
- Septic System Repair Program – 80/20 cost-share
- Riparian Buffer Establishment Program – Reimbursable up to $2,000 with 80/20 cost-share
Community Workshops and Education Programs Offered
- Homeowner and community workshops (Septic Care and Saving Your Streambanks)
- Work with local watershed partners and community stakeholder groups
- Youth classroom, virtual, and outdoor environmental education
- Watershed festivals and local events
Stay Connected to Your Watershed
Join one of our focus area watershed stakeholder groups! We meet once or twice a year to update the group on happenings in the watershed. Meetings are an opportunity to work through new ideas to improve water quality and raise awareness across the watershed and surrounding areas. Click the graphics below to learn more.
Dix River Watershed Group
Hinkston Creek Watershed Group
Find out if you live in a watershed area eligible for funding assistance:
Click the magnifying glass in the upper right corner of each map and type your address into the white box and click enter. Use the + and – boxes in the upper left corner to zoom in and out on the map.