Accomplishments for Meramec & Big River Location
Accomplishments
2015
Big River/ Meramec River UWFP Ambassador Funding
The Corps of Engineers St. Louis District and EPA jointly contributed $330K to fund a dedicated UWFP Ambassador for two years from the Corps of Engineers that has been engaging organizations and agencies, making presentations on the UWFP, coordinating activities, and recruiting new partnerships in the watershed to provide technical and other assistance. This is the first time EPA and the Corps have jointly contributed funds to support an UWFP ambassador. Both agencies have found the Ambassador’s actions to have significantly contributed to the progress and success of the UWFP and their agency missions in the watershed.
Expanding the Conversation Partnership Meeting
Building on the existing Big Rivers Task Force of state and Federal agencies, the Urban Waters Federal Partnership Ambassador and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Our Missouri Waters coordinated presentations and information sharing about existing programs and opportunities for collaboration. Topics included hydraulic modeling, stream restoration and enhancement, applied research, watershed planning, health effects of lead, and available programs from The Nature Conservancy, Saint Louis University, US Forest Service Watershed program, the National Corporation for Community Service program, US Geological Survey Missouri Water Science Center, Natural Resources Conservation Service and East-West Gateway Council of Governments.
Joint Feasibility Studies & Collaboration
The St. Louis District Corps of Engineers executed a Feasibility Cost Sharing Agreement for St. Louis Riverfront, MO and IL Meramec Study wit the Missouri Department of Natural Resources on August 27, 2015 at the Route 66 State Park. Director Sara Parker Pauley and Col. Anthony Mitchell joined with their staff, US EPA, and stakeholders to kick off one of two Joint Feasibility Studies in the nation. This effort is also one of only ten new investments this year in the Corps Civil Works portfolio. This project will allow the Corps ad MDNR the opportunity to focus on Ecosystem Restoration at the same time US EPA focuses on remediation of lead contamination within the Meramec and Big Rivers.
Lower Meramec Hands-On Stewardship and Watershed Education Project
This project focuses on the Lower Meramec Watershed, which drains nearly 4,000 square miles of central and eastern Missouri, including the southern St. Louis metropolitan area. A watershed management plan was completed for the Lower Meramec Watershed in July 2012, which identified ways to improve the watershed. This three-tiered collaborative project will build on community partnerships to address specific recommendations in the Lower Meramec Watershed plan by engaging in: 1) on-the-ground riparian habitat restoration through the Open Space Council’s Operation Clean Stream river stewardship project; 2) a public education exhibit of this watershed by creating and publicizing a public work of art, known as “Watershed Cairns;” 3) an assessment, analysis and technical interpretation conducted by St. Louis University.