Grants Awarded to Help With Watershed Restoration

Submitted by paula on Thu, 02/20/2014 - 5:49pm

The Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board has approved a grant of $704,000 to the Truckee River Watershed Council for three watershed restoration projects that will correct detrimental impacts to streams and meadows from roads and historical logging activities.

The three projects the Watershed Council will oversee are the Elizabethtown Meadows Restoration project on Middle Martis Creek just east of Northstar, the Martis Creek Watershed Restoration project located along Highway 267 just north of Northstar, and the first phase of the Dry Creek Restoration project in Russell Valley near Boca Reservoir. All are near the town of Truckee. The projects will restore stream channel form, reduce channel erosion, and restore area wetlands and meadow habitat. The $704,000 that was granted to the Watershed Council resulted from an enforcement action against Northstar Mountain Properties to settle construction-related storm water violations that occurred in 2009.

The Water Board also approved a new program for identifying and implementing Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) as a part of future enforcement actions.

“We want to encourage SEP projects that local stakeholder groups have identified as a high priority to benefit water quality,” said Water Board Chair Amy Horne. “As we learn from the program with the Watershed Council, we plan to form similar partnerships with organizations throughout the Lahontan Region.”

The funding agreement with the Truckee River Watershed Council is a pilot program to begin implementing the new SEP program. The Watershed Council was selected for the pilot program because it has been successfully managing stream and meadow restoration projects for years, and its project selection and funds accounting processes conform to the new SEP program requirements.

The Lahontan Water Board regulates waste discharges to water, and works to protect and restore water quality in the Lahontan Region of eastern California from the Oregon border through the Mojave Desert.