Watershed Plan
The Watershed Act provides funding to project sponsors to plan, design and construct projects to address a wide range of natural resource concerns at the watershed scale, including fish and wildlife habitat improvements. USDA requires project applicants to first develop a Watershed Plan of the proposed improvement.
Background
In coordination with partners, the District is working to provide a long-term sustainable remedy for the Quivira NWR impairment complaint.
On July 13, 2020, the District submitted an application to USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) under the Watershed Protection and Flood Control Act (PL 83-566) (Watershed Act) to evaluate a streamflow augmentation project to supplement water supplies to the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge). This project has received letters of support from the Kansas Congressional delegation, U.S Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Kansas Water Office, The Nature Conservancy, and Kansas Farm Bureau.
On July 25, 2020, the FWS and District entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) wherein the parties expressed support for a streamflow augmentation project. These parties have been working together, and with other local partners, to address water needs of the surrounding communities while also meeting the refuge’s wildlife conservation purposes.
In 2020, Big Bend Groundwater Management District No. 5 was awarded funding from NRCS to prepare a Watershed Plan-Environmental Assessment (Watershed Plan-EA) for Rattlesnake Creek Watershed Improvement. The District selected and entered into contract with Olsson of Overland Park, KS to conduct the Watershed Plan-EA. The NRCS Watershed Program provides eligible local sponsors with cost share assistance to undertake a wide range of watershed-scale improvements, including projects to improve agricultural water supply and fish and wildlife habitat. A Watershed Plan-EA provides National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance for the Proposed Project and will be developed as the first component of the Proposed Project.
The proposed Watershed Improvement area is in Stafford County. Olsson has coordinated with the District and NRCS to finalize the watershed study boundary and the proposed plan measures to be evaluated in the Watershed Plan-EA and a related feasibility analysis of the augmentation wellfield. Tasks for the development of the Watershed Plan-EA and feasibility analysis will include engineering/design to accurately define, formulate, and evaluate alternatives proposed in the Watershed Plan-EA for technical feasibility, socioeconomics, benefits and impacts. Project measures to be proposed and evaluated in the Watershed Plan-EA will be considered with public participation that will occur at specified times during the plan development process. In 2023, through coordination with NRCS staff at the state and national levels, the Watershed Plan-EA was transitioned to a full Watershed Plan - Environmental Impact Statement (Plan-EIS).
Olsson has led a massive coordination effort to put together the draft Plan-EIS. The draft Plan-EIS includes, but is not limited to, the following assessments:
- Economic impact assessment coordinated with NRCS and Abt Associates Inc
- Biological assessment coordinated with USFWS staff
- Technical feasibility coordinated with USFWS, KGS, KDA-DWR and Balleau GW
The Plan-EIS will be a more durable and comprehensive document that, when completed, will provide additional advantages to the District and the region in the coming phases of the proposed project.
The draft Plan-EIS has been evaluated by the National Water Management Center of the USDA-NRCS. Currently, the District and its contractors are making pertinent revisions to the draft plan based on the NWMC evaluation. Soon, the Plan-EIS will proceed to administrative review by NRCS staff in Washington D.C. Following this evaluation and respective revisions, the draft Plan-EIS will be made available for thorough public and interagency review and comment. In this portion of the process, Olsson, NRCS-KS, and the District will hold a public meeting to layout the plan objectives, evaluations, and collect input from the public.
The District shares the concern of many in the length of time this process has taken. To be very clear, the District, its contractors (Olsson and Balleau GW), NRCS-KS, and other state and federal partners have given this project top priority.
When the draft Plan-EIS is ready for public review, it will be posted to this page.
Public Meeting
The first public meeting was held on January 13, 2022 in St. John. The purpose of this meeting was to share information about the Watershed Plan-EA process and to gather feedback from the public on how to improve agricultural water supply and fish and wildlife habitat within the Rattlesnake Creek Watershed in Stafford County.
Meeting materials from the public meeting and, most importantly, the comment form is available for download below.
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