Targeted Watersheds
Under the 2003
Watershed Initiative
• Meduxnekeag River:
The Meduxnekeag River Watershed is located in Maine and is home to the Houlton Band of
Maliseet Indians. With EPA Watershed Initiative funding the tribe will be able to start many
different projects, such as: implementing a cost-share program with potato farmers,
identifying illicit sewer connections, and developing cost-share programs for removal of
improper sewer connections.
• Narragansett Bay
The Narragansett Bay Watershed is located in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The
Partnership for Narragansett Bay has a longstanding mission to create an ecologically and
economically viable future for Narragansett Bay and Coastal Rhode Island. With funding
from the Watershed Initiative the Partnership for Narragansett Bay can embark on activities
to re-establish, repair, and maintain fish runs, implement stormwater BMPs for erosion and
nutrient control, and plant eelgrass in estuaries to reduce nutrient runoff in Narragansett Bay.
• Charles River
The Charles River Watershed Association is slated to receive funding, under the EPA
Watershed Initiative to help in their efforts to protect and revitalize the Charles River. Formed
in 1965, the Charles River Watershed Association is one of the country's first watershed
organizations. This organization plans to use funding to investigate feasibility for using
instream flow for pollution trading, restoration of fisheries, installation of rainwater retention
systems for homeowners, collect samples and use DNA database to determine sources of
bacteria pollution, and start a stormwater education program.
• Raritan River Basin
The 1,100 square-mile Raritan River Basin, located in north central New Jersey, covers an
area that is home to 1.2 million people and 11 sub-watersheds. The Stony Brook-Millstone
Watershed Association, working with the New Jersey Water Supply Authority and the New
Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, will use its grant to implement a three-
pronged strategy to restore the basin. Their results-based initiative focuses on stream
restoration and stabilization; riparian area protection; stormwater and non-point source
pollution prevention management; implementing new municipal ordinances and promoting
road salting controls throughout the region.
• Susquehanna Headwaters
The Susquehanna Headwaters is located in New York and Pennsylvania. Using Watershed
Initiative funds, the Upper Susquehanna Coalition will continue its efforts to improve water
quality by reducing sediment and nutrient loading in the river basin. Monies will be used for
developing a database to target sites, implement a wetland restoration program, build county
coalitions to support community needs, design a riparian buffer initiative, train local groups in
stream restoration using natural stream design, assess possible erosion, conduct ditch
restoration demonstrations, and establish a college internship program.
• The Christina River
The Christina River is an important resource to the people of Pennsylvania and Delaware.
This river has been selected to receive Watershed Initiative funding to support the health and
restoration of the river. The lead watershed group for this river, that will be awarded the
funding, is the Christina Basin Partnership. This watershed group plans to use grant money
to restore and protect the river by implementing agricultural and stormwater Best
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Management Practices in targeted areas of the river, and implement SMARTYARD
homeowner landscape projects.
• Dunkard Creek
The Dunkard Creek Watershed is located in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Dunkard Creek
supports warm water fisheries in almost the entire stream, which has been devastated by
drainage from abandoned coalmines. Watershed Initiative grants will be awarded to the
Greene County Watershed Alliance. The Watershed Alliance will use the funding for the
restoration of abandoned mine drain streams, bird and bat habitat improvements, solid waste
removal, and public outreach.
• Upper Tennessee River
The Upper Tennessee River Watershed, which covers over 2,004,108 acres, serves as an
important resource to Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The Upper Tennessee River
Roundtable will receive Watershed Initiative funding to address some of the issues and
concerns of water quality and restoration is this region. Some of the planned projects
include: implementation of recycling program, construction of stormwater management
structures, implementation of species protection BMPs in creeks, and several streambank
and wetland restoration projects.
• Cumberland River
The Cumberland River watershed covers 18,000 square miles and is home to almost 2
million people in Tennessee and Kentucky. The EPA will award Watershed Initiative funding
to the Cumberland River Compact. The Cumberland River Compact has set out to enhance
the water quality of the Cumberland River and its tributaries through education and by
promoting cooperation among citizens, businesses, and agencies in Kentucky and
Tennessee since 1997. The Cumberland River Compact will use funding to conduct
sediment and stream bank loss data collection to establish a base line, implement rural and
urban Best Management Practices, and institute several site-specific Best Management
Practice demonstration projects.
• Great Miami River
The Great Miami River Watershed is located in the southwest portion of Ohio. The Miami
Conservancy District is a regional government agency that provides flood protection, water
resource monitoring and information, and recreational opportunities for the community within
the Great Miami River Watershed. Watershed Initiative funds will go toward four major
projects in the watershed. These projects include: a cost-share program to farmers who
adopt nutrient and sediment best management practices, cost-share program to homeowners
to upgrade and repair failing septic systems, constructing 2-stage drainage ditches, and
implementation of local sustainable watershed management strategies.
• Greater Blue Earth
The Greater Blue Earth Watershed is located in Minnesota and Iowa. The lead watershed
group for this watershed is the Three Rivers Resource Conservation and Development
Council. The council will be awarded Watershed Initiative funding to conduct several projects
including: restoration of 5 wetlands, organization crop insurance for farmers, providing cost-
share to landowners to install riparian buffers, organizing educational awareness projects,
and promoting existing agricultural conservation programs.
• Manistee River
The Manistee River Watershed is located in Michigan. This river is home to the Little River
Band of Ottawa Indians, which is a tribe of 2600 members. The river provides important
resources, which are vital to the survival of these people. EPA will award the tribe Watershed
Initiative grant money to support their efforts to restore and monitor the water quality of the
Manistee River. Planed projects include: repairing road and stream crossings, stream bank
stabilization, extensive monitoring, habitat inventories, invertebrate surveys, fish assessment,
and a sturgeon spawning site reclamation project.
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• Rio Puerco Watershed
The Rio Puerco Watershed is located in northwest New Mexico. The lead organization for
this watershed is the Rio Puerco Management Committee, which is a congressionally
mandated collaborative committee charted in 1997 to tackle the many environmental
problems of this watershed. Funding from the EPA's Watershed Initiative will enable the
Committee to go forward with many projects including: upland and in-channel stream
restoration, altering channel flow and topography, implementing livestock grazing
management practices, and programs to educate the public.
• Bayou Bartholomew
The Bayou Bartholomew Watershed is located in Arkansas. EPA's Watershed Initiative will
award a grant to Winrock International. The grant will help this group continue their efforts in
monitoring and restoring the water quality of the Bayou Bartholomew. The group plans to
develop an innovative environmental assets trading program, implement and assess impact
on land use, collect stream morphology data, establish continuous monitoring station, and
develop protection program for mussels.
• Rathbun Lake
The Rathbun Lake Watershed is located in Iowa and is represented by the Rathbun Land and
Water Alliance. The Alliance is a cooperative effort that fosters a voluntary approach driven
by landowners, water users, and public/private organizations to protect and enhance land,
water, and economic resources in the Rathbun region. With funding from the EPA's
Watershed Initiative many projects will be carried out in the watershed. Some of these
projects include: implementing agriculture Best Management Practices, assessing sub-
watersheds for Best Management Practice development, promoting farmer enrollment in
watershed protection enhancement agreements, demonstrating market-based forage and
livestock production practices, and conducting water monitoring.
• Upper White
The Upper White River Basin is home to over a million people in 21 counties in Northwest
Arkansas and Southwest Missouri, covering an area of over 14,000 square miles. The basin
is among the most rapidly growing areas in Missouri and Arkansas. Watershed Initiative
funding will be awarded to the Upper White River Basin Foundation to continue their efforts in
addressing the problem of decreasing water quality along the Upper White. Specifically the
group plans to use funding to integrate separate watershed plans, provide organizational
capacity building, implement an innovative on-site wastewater system demonstration, and
conduct monitoring with CIS applications for targeting critical areas.
• The Clark Fork-Pend Oreille Watershed
This 26,000 square mile watershed covers Montana's largest river basin, the Clark Fork, and
Idaho's largest freshwater lake, Pend Oreille. Four watershed groups in Montana, tribal
interests in the Flathead basin, and the Tri-State Water Quality Council operating in Idaho
have partnered to address nutrient pollution through a combination of activities outlined in
existing watershed plans. Projects will expand participation in voluntary nutrient reduction
programs, implement stream and habitat restoration using agricultural Best Management
Practices, reduce lake nutrient and sediment loading along tribal lands, and institute
comprehensive monitoring systems to analyze and report trends.
• Upper South Platte
The Upper South Platte watershed contains over 1.2 million acres of public lands, provides
municipal water for about 75% of Colorado's residents, and is home to many threatened and
endangered species. The watershed has recently been hit by extensive wildfires, including
the 2002 Hayman fire, resulting in massive sedimentation in the South Platte and its
tributaries. The Coalition will use Watershed Initiative funding to provide organizational
capacity building, to enhance post-fire recovery and restoration efforts, to protect remaining
unimpaired streams and wetlands, and to promote volunteer driven restoration and clean-up
efforts.
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Hanalei Bay
The Hanalei Bay River is one of the largest rivers in the state of Hawaii and has nurtured
agricultural crops since ancient times. Watershed Initiative funding will be awarded the
Hanalei Heritage River Program to support local efforts for ecologic restoration, community
development and historic and cultural preservation. Planned projects include: cesspool
replacement, exclusion fencing, erosion control BMP implementation, and monitoring.
Lower Columbia River
The Lower Columbia River flows through the states of Oregon and Washington. The Lower
Columbia River and Estuary Partnership is a watershed group that works to protect and
restore the lower Columbia River estuary. The group provides on-the-ground improvements
and education information programs to the region of the Lower Columbia River. With
Watershed Initiative assistance the Lower Columbia River and Estuary Partnership plans to
complete a stream restoration project and wetland restoration project in both Washington and
Oregon, and implement habitat monitoring protocols.
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