Targeted Watersheds Grant Program 2006/2007 Implementation Grants

The Targeted Watersheds Grant (TWG) program encourages the protection and restoration of the country ’s water resources through cooperative conservation. The program supports collaborative watershed partnerships that are ready to implement on-the-ground restoration and protection activities designed to achieve quick, measurable environmental results. EPA selected 15 organizations, through a competitive process, for award of $12.4 million in implementation grants for the 2006/2007 competition.

Tri-state Connecticut River Watershed, VT, NH, MA
Pioneer Valley Planning Commission
The Connecticut River is New England’s longest river. The Connecticut River valley is home to about 2 million residents with 84% living near urban areas. The proposed projects will improve Connecticut River water quality through an array of various projects and outreach including: educating local elected officials on decisions impacting water quality, promoting smart growth and implementing LID techniques, addressing erosion control, and using cost share, fees, and rebate programs to finance mitigation solutions for stormwater management.

Lake Champlain, NY
Champlain Watershed Improvement Coalition of New York
The Lake Champlain watershed in New York has been valued for its excellent water quality, sport fishery, natural beauty and location. Agriculture, mining, forestry, fishing, hunting and trapping have all played major roles in the economic history of the Champlain Basin. The proposed projects will reduce phosphorus inputs to Lake Champlain through a variety of means including: voluntary incentive-based programs to assist farmers implementing BMPs, sediment control and stream bank stabilization activities, constructions of wetland treatment cells, and education and outreach.

Saw Mill River, NY
Groundwork Yonkers 
The Saw Mill River originates in Chappaqua, New York and flows through both residential and industrial settings then is buried for more than a mile before it empties into the Hudson River. The Army Corps of Engineers plans to daylight the river (return the river to a surface flow). The proposed project will address fecal coliform discharges from homes and businesses, develop a floatables reduction campaign, review site design of parks on the proposed daylit sections of the river, conduct riparian restoration along trailways, conduct low impact development workshops for municipal officials and expand GIS mapping of the river.

Money Point, Elizabeth River Watershed, VA
The Elizabeth River Project
The Elizabeth River is the world’s largest natural harbors for military and commercial shipping and a vital part of the ecosystem of the Chesapeake Bay. It is an important tidal estuarine habitat for blue crabs, striped bass, and other keystone species. The proposed projects will concentrate on reducing toxics and restoring water quality through innovative methods including a "living cap" constructed of wetlands and oyster reefs.

Saluda-Reedy Watershed, SC
Upstate Forever 
The Saluda-Reedy watershed is located in the Greenville metro area. The urbanized nature of the area and the topography of the watershed provide particular challenges to the protection of water quality. The proposed projects will improve water quality through several components including: an innovative trading system for stormwater management, an LID decision making tool, and an innovative floodplain restoration bank credit program.

Betsie, Platte, Otter Watershed Improvement Project, MI
Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians 
The three adjacent watersheds in this project cover northern Michigan’s rural Benzie County. Tribal members have traditional interests in subsistence fishing, which is endangered by the effects of population growth on the water quality and resources in the surrounding watersheds. The proposed projects will improve water quality through dam removal, wetland and stream channel restoration, erosion control, agricultural BMP implementation, and elevated sediment load reduction.

Sandusky River & Honey Creek Watersheds, OH
National Center for Water Quality Research at Heidelberg College 
The Honey Creek Watershed lies within the Sandusky River Basin of north central Ohio, where drainage is north to Lake Erie. Agriculture is the predominant land use. The proposed projects will improve water quality through methods that will decrease the concentration of dissolved phosphorus, improve impaired biological communities, and lower high nitrate concentrations. Project components include wetland restoration, innovative vertical soil phosphorus testing, using UDSA CREP and EQIP practices and using incentives to encourage farmers to employ BMP’s such as filter and buffer strips.

Torreon Wash, NM
Rio Puerco Alliance 
Torreon Wash lies within the Arroyo Chico subwatershed in northwestern New Mexico. The Torreon Wash suffers from almost non-existent riparian cover and one of the highest levels of bare ground and erosion. The main strategies of the proposed project focus on decreasing sedimentation and erosion, increasing desired vegetation, decreasing non-native and invasive species, enhancing infiltration of precipitation, and decreasing runoff. An ultimate goal will be to teach coming generations how to improve water quality and increase water quantity and agricultural yield, while reducing impairment. Outcomes will include significant reduction in sediment going into the Rio Puerco, improved local economies, and through extensive outreach, demonstration to other communities of the benefits of these techniques.

Marais Des Cygnes Basin, KS, MO
Kansas Department of Health and Environment 
The Marais Des Cygnes River Basin is located south of the Kansas City metropolitan area and is home to more than 125,000 Kansas and Missouri residents. The river basin is experiencing urbanization, population increase, and land use shifts, placing strains on the water quality and water supply. The proposed projects will improve water quality though the implementation of an innovative market based water quality protection auction and a targeted decision making tool for education activities.

Lake Helena Watershed, MT
Lewis and Clark County 
The Lake Helena Watershed is located in west-central Montana in Lewis and Clark and Jefferson Counties and is part of the greater upper Missouri River watershed. The Helena Valley is the primary population center and economic hub for these counties. The valley continues to have the largest percentage of the Lewis and Clark County’s population growth. The proposed projects will improve water quality by addressing high nutrient and sedimentation issues. Methods include the formation of a septic system maintenance district, improving culverts, rolling dips and belt drains on specified roads, riparian restoration and stream flow enhancement, and monitoring progress.

Clear Creek Watershed, CO

The Clear Creek Watershed is located immediately west of Denver. The surrounding area is mountainous and rural and has a history of mining which had negative impacts on the water quality. The crash of the silver markets left many of the mine sites abandoned, leaving approximately 2,000 "orphan" sites. Clear Creek is the primary drinking water supply for 9,000 upper basin citizens and 300,000 lower basin citizens. The proposed project will improve water quality by installing sediment traps, removing waste piles and establishing a maintenance program to clean out the sediment traps, funded through the use of an innovative market based metals/pollutant trading program.

Mission Creek Watershed, MT
The Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes 
The Mission Creek Watershed is located within the boundaries of the Flathead Indian Reservation. The surrounding area is predominantly rural. However, changes are occurring rapidly; and there has been a severe decline in the distribution and abundance of bull trout and native westslope cutthroat trout. The proposed projects will implement restoration activities to improve water quality and help restore fisheries habitat. Specific projects include: a sequenced treatment system and treatment wetlands to remove nutrients, bacteria and sediments from irrigation return flows, stream restoration with natural channel design, streambank stabilization and revegetation with native vegetation.

Santa Cruz River, AZ, Mexico
Sonoran Institute 
The Santa Cruz River headwaters begin in Arizona and flow south from the United States into Sonora, Mexico, where the river makes a u-turn and flows back north across the international boundary into Arizona. The river has the distinction of being the only river to cross the U.S./Mexico border twice. The proposed projects will improve water quality by using innovative methods that will restore and augment natural infiltration capacity in the watershed to enhance water table recharge, riparian habitat health and healthy river function. The projects will also culminate in the creation of a coordinated watershed-wide river conservation steering committee.

Upper Klamath Watershed, OR
Ducks Unlimited 
The Upper Klamath Watershed has 17 native species of fish, eight of which are found no where else in the world. The area also supports a great concentration of wetland complexes, used by over two million water birds. Water quality degradation, de-watered streams, loss of wetland and riparian habitats, and hydro dams have dramatically diminished the health of the system. The proposed project will improve water quality with nine restoration and enhancement projects that include wetland restoration and treatment, implementation of agriculture BMP’s, and outreach.

Nisqually Watershed, WA
Nisqually River Foundation 
The Nisqually Watershed is the only watershed in the country with its headwaters in a national park and its mouth in a national wildlife refuge. The watershed is also home to the Nisqually Indian Tribe, as well as 90,000 residents. Increased urban development is beginning to compromise the natural resources of rural forests and farms. The proposed project will improve water quality by creating innovative marketing programs for forest and farm products produced in the Nisqually watershed. These programs will allow consumers to support sustainable land use practices.