MISSISSIPPI: UPPER PEARL RIVER BASIN
Geo-Spatial Tools Can Support Leadership in
Integrating Source Water and Watershed Protection
Background
Location: Upper Pearl River Basin, Pearl River Watershed, Mississippi.
Water Supply: Ross Barnett Reservoir (surface water source for Jackson, Mississippi).
Source Water Assessment: The assessments were completed by Mississippi
Department of Environmental Quality.
Priority Contamination Threats
The Pearl River's water quality is significantly influenced by diverse land based urban
development and agricultural activities throughout the Upper Basin that can cause
erosion resulting in sedimentation. The source water is also impacted periodically by
fecal coliform spikes.
Local Team and Developing the Protection Plan
Geospatial data and decision support tools were used as a topic to consult with Federal,
state and local agencies in the Upper Pearl River Basin were consulted to
Federal, state and local (university professors) representatives developed the protection
plan. The team included the Mississippi DEQ, U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural
Resources Conservation Service, Mississippi Soil and Water Conservation Commission,
and Mississippi Water Resources Research Institute.
Management Measures
The project was aimed to assist federal, state and local agencies and county
governments in understanding source water protection, potential threats to source water
in the Upper Pearl River Basin and the tools available to plan and implement water
protection measures. The project addresses the use of geo-spatial tools such as GIS,
GPS and remote sensing data to support state agency compliance with federal program
mandates through integrated watershed management. These tools were used to
promote the creation of a diverse Upper Pearl River Basin Watershed Advisory Group
that would work together to make the Upper Pearl River Basin a priority, hydrologically
defined area for water quality, public health, and other natural resource issues. The
Advisory Group would also allow local leaders to prompt integrated water quality and
drinking water protection in a single watershed management effort by integrating
disparate national and state programs at the watershed level with regional and local
governments/agencies that have zoning and land use planning authorities, which are
vital to implementing sustainable watershed management to address non-point sources
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of water quality impairment and drinking water threats. Some of the elements that are
critical for a successful management approach include:
• Coordinated frameworks - structure and a process for participants to interact and
implement, and clear reporting procedures.
• Inclusion - embracing a comprehensive and collaborative approach to
governmental, agency and public stakeholder participation and shared decision
making.
• Process - a formal mechanism to allow adaptive management but also allows
and supports decision making and implementation.
• Control and authority - active participation and leadership of regional and local
governments and agencies critical to integrating source water and water quality
protection in a single basin or watershed management effort but local decisions
and actions must be connected to overall management effort.
• Leadership and education - education and outreach critical to empower local
leadership to start and maintain a successful basin or watershed management
effort to remedy large-scale water resource issues.
Contingency Planning
The initial GIS data collection efforts justified contacting numerous agencies and
governments with different lands or management authority in the Upper Pearl River
Basin. As is referenced below, many of these entities voluntarily agreed to participate in
an Upper Pearl River Watershed Advisory Group to provide a forum to pursue long-term
cooperative management of the basin and a focal point for contingency planning.
Measuring Program Results
The initial project referenced above was a necessary pre-condition to the following
activities:
1. Many federal, state and local agencies and county governments signed a formal
Memorandum of Understanding to create and participate in the Upper Pearl
River Watershed advisory Group (March 4, 2004)
2. The Watershed Advisory Group invited the Tennessee Valley Authority to give
the Board a presentation on their efforts on an Upper Pearl Basin Source Water
Assessment (May 28, 2004).
3. Governor Barbour nominated the Upper Pearl River Watershed Advisory Group's
Proposal in response to EPA National Targeted Watershed Request for
Proposals (May 11, 2005). The proposal was developed and submitted by the
Advisory Group and included several source water protection tasks.
4. The Mississippi State University team that did the initial source water project
received a CWA 319 grant to prepare an Upper Pearl River Basin Watershed
Implementation Plan (WIP) which the Advisory Group adopted in early 2006.
The plan explicitly identified and prioritized source water protection projects.
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5. The Watershed Advisory Group hosted a Mississippi Source Water Protection
Workshop on June 20, 2006, to highlight the basin's source water protection
needs and ongoing data collection efforts.
For further information, contact:
Dr. Mary Love Tagert
Assistant Research Professor
Water Resources Research Institute
Mail Stop 9680
361 Thompson Hall
Mississippi State
(662) 325-8081
mltagert(S)abe. msstate.edu
Jeff Ballweber
Director of Special Projects
Pickering Inc.
460 Briarwood Drive, Suite 515
Jackson, MS 39206
(601) 927-0883
iballweber@pickeringinc.com
Office of Water (4606M) 816F100021 January 2010
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