Federal Funds Are Indeed Reaching the Mark

December 2005

Federal funds are hitting the mark in an on-going project, titled the Tunkhannock Creek and Bowman’s Creek Assessment and Restoration Project.  The project is tasked with the restoration of streams within both the Tunkhannock and Bowman’s Creek watersheds.  Restoration, in this context, means the identifying lengths of stream, or “reaches”, with problems, and formulating a strategy to fix the problem.  To “fix” the problem is to return the reach to a stable condition.  Stable, in this context, refers to a condition were the stream maintains its pathway, or alignment, and is able to transport the gravel sediment through the reach without build-up or without continuing stream bank or streambed erosion.  The design process involved in formulating the “fix strategy” is a multi-disciplinary process, requiring an analysis of the stream hydrology (determining how much water will come into the stream), hydraulics (determining how deep, fast, and how wide the stream will flow), and biology (determining the most resistive riparian vegetation, and creating proper habitat for fish and wildlife).  While in some instances the stream restoration may slightly lessen the effects of flood waters, it is not intended as a flood mitigation measure, nor is flood mitigation a primary objective for the project.  Care is taken, however, to make sure that the “fix” does not increase flood levels. 

The origins of this project lie within the efforts of Congressman Don Sherwood.  Congressman Sherwood, recognizing that there were significant areas of severe stream degradation and instability within the two respective watersheds, worked through the Congressional Appropriations Committee to secure federal funds to continue the assessment and restoration activities initiated in these two watersheds by the Wyoming County Conservation District (WCCD).  The WCCD had previously obtained a PA DEP Growing Greener grant for watershed assessments in several watersheds, including the Bowman’s Creek watershed.  These assessments were completed in 2003-2004 period.  In a separate project, assessments were made of selected reaches of the South Branch of Tunkhannock Creek  by Tim Eichner, director of the Water Resource Center of Keystone College.  The federal appropriation secured by Congressman Sherwood was designated to complete the watershed assessments in the 150-mi² Bowman’s Creek and the 412-mi² Tunkhannock Creek watersheds, and to restore the problem reaches to a stable condition.  The watersheds in which these activities will be on-going include not only the two named creeks, but also all the tributaries of both creeks.  The congressman has been successful in obtaining two subsequent appropriations, to which the Bentley Creek watershed has been added.

When Congress makes such a targeted appropriation, it is generally administered through whatever federal agency handles the targeted activity.  In the case of stream restoration, the federal agency is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).  The total amount of the appropriation must be “obligated” by the USFWS by the end of the year appropriated, but once obligated, the designated receiver has five years to actually spend the money.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service obligated the appropriated funds to the Wyoming County Conservation District through a cooperative agreement between the two agencies.  Money to cover a portion of the salaries of the USFWS staff assigned to the project and their travel expenses were deducted from the appropriation, with the remaining money being passed on to the WCCD.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pennsylvania Field Office staff in State College, PA continue to work with the staff of the WCCD to accomplish the objectives of the appropriation. 

To date, all field work on the project has been performed by both USFWS and WCCD staff.  The USFWS project staff includes a hydrologist, a biologist, an engineer, and several interns.  The WCCD staff includes a watershed specialist, support staff, and more than 10 interns.  The WCCD has actively taken the lead in completing both screening assessments of the main stem and tributary streams in the areas remaining, and also a detailed characterization and assessment of the annual erosion rate from each of the identified problem reaches.  The USFWS has provided the training, equipment, and technical assistance in the assessments, characterizations, permitting, and restoration design.  The project is being directed by a citizenry steering committee, which oversees the execution of the project and makes decisions on how the appropriated funds are spent.  The formation of the steering committee was facilitated by the USFWS, and is made up of representatives from the Wyoming, Susquehanna, and Lackawanna County Conservation Districts, the Bowman’s Creek and Tunkhannock Creek Watershed Associations, various municipalities within the watersheds, property owners along the streams, and anyone else with a vested interest in the project. 

Rehabilitating and restoring a stream is a lot like building a skyscraper, considerable preliminary planning needs to be completed before work can begin, and a strong foundation of information must be gathered on which to build a successful restoration project.  The overall goal of the project is to minimize the excess sediment that is polluting and clogging our watershed streams, the Susquehanna River and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay.  The project is “front-end loaded” with extensive data gathering on both problem sites and on stable reaches.  This is typically done in two phases; the first phase being the initial visual assessment.  The second phase involves estimating the annual erosion amount, and doing detailed surveying of the channel reach.  The third phase of the restoration process is the design phase.  The data from the stable reaches is used to develop the dimensions, pattern, and profile of the channel at the problem sites.  The first step of the restoration design is to design a stable channel.  This involves setting the proper depth, and width for the bankfull stream flow.  The second step is to establish and/or design a proper flood plain.  The third step is to stabilize the channel.  Vegetation is the key to maintaining a stable channel, but in the absence of riparian vegetation, restoration structures are installed in the channel to stabilize the banks until the natural vegetation is established.  The restoration and stabilization goals cannot be accomplished with hastily constructed structures.  If the proper rigor is not used in gathering characterizing the problem site and reference sites, it can put the restoration in jeopardy of failure during a high flow event.  Construction supervision, and attention to detail are also required for a successful project.  Like any other stabilization technique (rip-rap, gabion baskets, etc.), natural stream channel design structures occasionally need fine-tuning, or periodic maintenance. 

A first-phase assessment involves walking the entire lengths of streams and tributaries, assessing the stream conditions using a standardized protocol (in our case the PA DEP Stream Visual Assessment protocols), photo-documenting the conditions of the stream and the streamside vegetation, and recording the location and lengths of all impacted reaches.  The Phase I assessments were completed for the two watersheds during the summers of 2003-04 by a staff of 10 student interns.  To date, 43 severe erosion sites have been identified.  Data from these sites were used to establish a priority rating score, based on the sites’ ratings for 14 different criteria.  Final scores were used to rank the sites in a priority order.  The ranking was subsequently used to schedule the detailed characterization (Phase II) work.

The Phase II characterization work involves detailed surveying of the stream’s pattern and cross-sectional profiles.  Permanent cross section markings are established for long-term repeatability and monitoring at select locations perpendicular to the stream.  Longitudinal profiles are made, with detailed measurements parallel to the stream flow.  Sediment measurements, called “pebble counts” are also collected at each site.  At each site a sample of a depositional feature is sampled, sifted through sieves, and weighed.  In addition, a length of chain up to four-foot is driven into the streambed to determine how much streambed scour occurs during a flood event.  To date, detailed Phase II characterizations have been completed at 10 of the 43 sites, including the installation of more than 114 permanent monitoring cross-sections, and detailed surveying of over seven miles of stream length.  Almost all of these data have been collected by the interns hired by the WCCD and the USFWS, at a cost of $157,162 for wages and travel expense.  If an environmental consulting firm had been brought in to do similar work, the cost would have been much higher; for example a Mehoopany Creek site assessment conducted by a private firm, on a small site (< 1 mile), cost $56,136.  The WCCD cost per mile assessed was approximately 3% of the private firm cost. 

The third phase of a natural stream channel restoration is the design of the remedial measures, which typically consist of bank stabilization measures, channel realignment or relocation, or a combination thereof.  The restoration is based on natural stream channel design principles, in which the natural stable stream characteristics are emulated as much as possible, and structures installed in the stream are designed to alter the path of the highest velocity flow away from the banks, as well as provide much needed habitat features for fish and other aquatic life.  Each design must be permitted by the PA DEP, and in certain instances, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, prior to construction.  To date, the design and permitting has been done through the technical assistance of the USFWS staff. 

The permitting applications for a stream restoration project can be a very involved task in itself.  Most sites require an Individual Joint Permit, with PA DEP and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  The permit application has 19 components that must be included as part of the submission.  These include detailed surveys, cross-sections, and river characterization data, detailed drawings of the restoration, assessments of the potential environmental impacts, a plan for erosion and sedimentation control, notification letters for various oversight agencies, and landowner agreement forms, to mention a few.  Assembling the document requires significant effort and time, as the entire design must be worked out prior to completing the permit application.  PA DEP then has several months in order to complete their review of the application.

Problem sites were selected for design and construction by the project steering committee using the priority list developed as product of the Phase I assessments.  Twelve sites were selected for design, permitting, and construction for 2005.  However, this goal proved to be a bit too ambitious, and due to delays in design and permitting, the construction of these sites has been pushed back into early in the 2006 construction season.  The first sites slated for construction include those on the tributary to Swale Brook in the Tunkhannock Borough, a site at the Scott Township Municipal Building, several smaller, preventative maintenance sites, and a channel relocation, realignment, and stabilization project on Bowman’s Creek along Jenks Road.  Each year, for the next five years, more sites will be selected for design, permitting, and construction for as long as there remains funding from the appropriations.  The USFWS is currently working with PA DEP to provide emergency measures at the most critical sites on the Swale Brook tributary for some protection against spring flows until the full restoration design and individual joint permit application can be assembled and reviewed.  Dr. Larry Brannaka, hydrologist with USFWS, was optimistic that some emergency measures may be installed in the beginning of 2006.

Construction of these projects will be done by qualified contractors, a large percentage of which are local to the area.  A list of contractors that are qualified for various activities involved in the restoration work has been developed by the steering committee. The committee will seek bids from those contractors that have been pre-qualified for respective restoration activities.  The USFWS is providing training for the WCCD staff in construction supervision, and will be overseeing the construction of the projects.

The Steering Committee also makes the decisions on major equipment purchases to facilitate the execution of the project.  Major purchases for the project include a sophisticated piece of survey equipment based on global positioning satellites, and a shared interest in a vehicle for the WCCD.  It is the latter purchase that Mr. Baker’s article of November 30, 2005 references with obvious implications of impropriety, having been purchased from Sherwood Cheverolet.  The Steering Committee authorized splitting the cost of a pick-up truck, which will be prioritized for use on this project, with the WCCD.  Bids were solicited along with a list of criteria desired in a vehicle, and the vehicle was purchased from the low bidder.  Dr. Larry Brannaka, who is intimately involved in this project, stated that “the formation of the steering committee made up of public citizens from various organizations and homeowners with vested interests in this project is itself a watchdog mechanism against impropriety with public funds.  To have excluded Sherwood Chevrolet from the bidding process would also have been discriminatory.  They just happened to give us the best price (and probably took the lowest profit margin) of those asked to bid.”

            Dr. Brannaka notes that the Steering Committee typically meets once a month.  If anyone has a question as to how the appropriation money is being spent, they have but to ask, as the books are always open.  Anyone with a vested interest in the project is welcome to attend the Steering Committee meetings, and be included on the information and announcement list.  Persons with questions about the project should contact Doug Deutsch at the Wyoming County Conservation District (570) 836-2589 extension 106, or Charlotte Severcool at extension 104, or Dr. Larry Brannaka at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (814) 234-4090 extension 240.