Salt River Basin Team Meeting

USGS, Louisville

July 9, 2003

Meeting Minutes

Attendance:

Edward Middleton

Teena Halbig

Maleva Chamberlain

Pennie DuBarry

Pat Neichter

Steve Gray

Allan Dittmer

Mike Mudd

Greg Kuhns

Angela Kessans

Angela Kessans, SR Basin Coordinator was late to the meeting due to a traffic issue on the way there. Pennie DuBarry began the meeting discussing the upcoming Sinking Creek tour.

Steve Gray, DOF, who was going to be leading the tour, gave the group driving direction and also information as to what supplies to bring and where we would be going on the tour.

The tour will be July 14, 2003 at Big Spring. The group will meet at Carters Groove Store at 10:00 Eastern Time.

Updates and Announcements:

Angela discussed with the group DOWs Proposed Exceptional Waters. The group discussed this and how it related to the Antidegradation Policy, existing Outstanding National Resource Water streams and more.

DOW proposes to add Brashears Creek, Cedar Creek, Chaplin River, Guist Creek, Harts Run, Overalls Creek, Pope Creek, Sulphur Creek and West Fork Otter Creek to the list of exceptional waters. Contact DOW for more information.

Angela reminded the group about the upcoming Green River Fest Environmental Cleanup and Celebration on July 19, 2003. It will be held at Thelma Stovall Park in Munfordville, Ky. For more information call 270-542-4752.

Angela informed the group that Lincoln Trail ADD received an EPA grant for Regional Source Water Projects. The project is entitled “Implementation of Source Water Protection Plans” and will be for Fort Knox, KY and participating communities. BAT Associates will assist LTADD in implementing this project. For more information call 865-481-8105. The group was very impressed with the proposal and the work plan. This discussion lead to another discussion on Otter Creek and what is currently in place there. Several members of the team also discussed the 319(h) grant process and their view on it. Some believed that NPS section was too stringent on the grant applicants while others believed the applicants weren’t held liable for much of anything. If you would like more information about the NPS grant process, please contact Steve McMurray at (502) 564-3410.

Angela passed around a copy of the US FWS Call for Proposals.

Floyds Fork Construction:

Teena Halbig, FFEA, discussed two proposed construction sites in the Floyds Fork watershed. One is a proposal for a new bridge. It is proposed due to projected future traffic and will be constructed where there is currently no disruption. The other proposed construction site is in the Bardstown Road area of the watershed. This proposal will chop-up the Floyds Fork overlay, and allow people to build whatever they want, wherever they want. For more information contact Teena at 502-267-6883.

USGS Grant Proposal:

Pennie DuBarry, USGS, spent time discussing the USGS project entitled “Interactive GIS Tool to Estimate Basin Characteristics, Streamflow Statistics and Nutrient Loads”. Fro more information about the project or a copy of it, contact Pennie at 502-493-1934.

With this Angela passed around copies of two other eligible 319(h) projects. One of the projects was from KWA, entitled “Increasing Citizen Involvement in Watershed Planning”. The other project is from Kentucky Department of Agriculture-Division of Pesticide Regulations, and is entitled “Land Use Practices and Their Impact on Water Quality in Upper Sinking Creek Watershed”. For more information on these grants contact the Non-Point Section at DOW.

Watershed Roundtable:

Angela asked for more volunteers to take notes for the Salt River Basin at the Roundtable. The conference will be held August 19-20, 2003 at the Holiday Inn North in Lexington, Ky. The cost is $35/person. For more information about the Roundtable contact Lee Colten, DOW, at 502-564-3410. There were no more definite volunteers at the meeting.

Basin Management Plan Update:

Comments or Suggestion-Angela told the group that the comments she received thus far were wonderful and that she appreciated the feedback she has received so far. She has almost got caught up with all the changes that were submitted. If you haven’t turned them in, please see below.

Where we are with the Priority Watersheds-Have been meeting with the Beargrass Creek group and have their section finished for now. Have met with the Floyds Fork people and have a list of goals/objectives and issues and concerns. Am still working on getting the list cleaned-up a little. Have been meeting with the Sinking Creek people and have finished up with their section of the plan. Contacted and invited the people in the Salt River area to a meeting that will be held July 22, 2003 at the Spencer County Cooperative Extension Office at 6:00pm.

Maps-USGS will be making the maps for the Plan. They are making one large map, where the reader can zoom into their watershed. They will also be able to click on the name of their watershed and zoom in also.

Mike Mudd, DOW, asked about Beargrass Creek. He asked who the facilitator was and how he was connected. He asked that if people contacted him about the Beargrass Creek Watershed Action Plan (because his name is down as the contact), if they would be charged. Angela told him she would check with him and change the contact if that were the case.

Evaluation:

Angela reminded the group members that the evaluation for her needed to be given to her ASAP, so that she can finish summarizing the results. If you need a copy or have any questions about the evaluation contact Angela at 502-338-7874.

Conclusion:

The next team meeting will be August 13, 2003 at USGS, Louisville. The meeting will begin at 9:00. This will be the last time I will be accepting comments or suggestions to the Basin Management Plan that you all received a copy of. I will also be accepting the evaluations you have. Please, if you haven’t turned them in yet, please try and have them at the next meeting.

Hope to see you all there!!!!