Fay Comes to Fayette County, Georgia

Fayette County remains under a Flash Flood Watch through this evening. Taking a look at the weather for the next few days, all we saw was rain and more rain. Be careful and keep an eye out if you live near water sources or if you're in areas prone to the dangers from flooding. According to the warning the worst of the flood potential is above the I-20 line, but we're already seeing some creeks spilling over their beds.
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Gwinnett Mitigation Bank Protects Streams, Wetlands

The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners voted today to record a restrictive covenant on a stream restoration project site along Sweetwater Creek to ensure the property will remain in a restored or preserved state in perpetuity. A recorded restrictive covenant is required to establish the project as a mitigation banking site, thereby allowing stream or wetland restoration credits to be awarded by the US Army Corps of Engineers, deposited into the county’s mitigation bank and later sold by the county. Credits are awarded when the County restores, enhances or preserves streams and/or wetlands.

When public and private entities incur unavoidable losses to streams and wetlands during construction, they must offset that loss by completing restoration work themselves or purchasing restoration credits from a mitigation bank. It is expected that selling credits will help the county offset current project costs at the Sweetwater Creek site and also generate funds to conduct additional stream restoration projects elsewhere. The Gwinnett County Mitigation Bank, along with each credit-generating project, is authorized by the US Army Corps of Engineers with input from the US EPA, US Fish and Wildlife and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Once the restrictive covenant is recorded, the US Army Corps of Engineers will release the first 15 percent of the total mitigation credits for the Sweetwater Creek restoration project. This will be the first deposit of credits into the county’s bank. In total this project will generate approximately 10,200 stream mitigation credits over a seven-year period. At the current market rate for stream credits of approximately $70 to $100 per credit, the project is expected to generate revenues in the range of $700,000 to $1 million.

“These stream restoration projects are necessary to help restore the natural balance in our watersheds,” said Lynn Smarr, Acting Director of the County Water Resources Department. She added that Gwinnett County’s previous establishment of the mitigation bank, and current work with the US Army Corps of Engineers to obtain credits on the Sweetwater Creek project, will reduce the total cost of implementing this and future stream and wetlands restoration projects.
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EPA Grants Help Clean Up Gwinnett Stream

The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners today voted to accept a United States Environmental Protection Agency Section 319 grant to help stabilize and clean up an impacted tributary to the North Fork of Peachtree Creek in south Gwinnett. The amount of the grant is $600,000 and will require local matching funds in the amount of $400,000 for a total project budget of $1 million.

The project is located on County-owned property along a tributary of the North Fork of Peachtree Creek west of Jimmy Carter Boulevard and just south of Interstate 85. This stream currently does not meet the State of Georgia’s water quality standards and is considered one of the more impacted streams in the County.

Gwinnett County is required under various permits to evaluate and take action to improve the water quality in such streams identified as being in non-compliance. The county has spent the last several years identifying and prioritizing these impacted stream segments throughout most watersheds in the county and has now prepared plans for corrective action. This comprehensive watershed-wide planning approach allows for the location of projects strategically where they will provide the greatest benefit to the watershed overall. The major goals of the project on North Fork Peachtree Creek, and of the program overall, are to stabilize eroding streambanks and improve water quality and aquatic habitat.

“Gwinnett County is committed to protecting the environment and improving the quality of water in our local streams through implementation of projects like this one,” said Lynn Smarr, Acting Director of the County’s Department of Water Resources.
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Gwinnett County, Partners Celebrate Dam Safety

Fourteen dams built to keep agricultural land in Gwinnett County from flooding are being upgraded to meet modern safety standards. The County originally partnered with the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and several local agencies, including the Upper Ocmulgee River Resource Conservation and Development Council, the Gwinnett County Soil and Water Conservation District and the Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission to design and build the dams between 1965 and 1980. But a rapidly growing population and changing land-use patterns now require new design criteria, primarily to expand spillway capacity.

Gwinnett began a capital improvement program in 1999 to upgrade all 14 dams. Construction is finished at seven dams and upgrade designs are being completed for another three. Two already met the new criteria and the remaining two are considered low-hazard but will be upgraded due to potential future development nearby.

According to Stormwater Division Director Steve Leo, three of the seven dams that have been upgraded were accomplished through the NRCS Dam Upgrade Cost Share Program, which provides 65 percent funding from the federal government. The three structures, No. Y-14, Y-15 and Y-17, are located within the Yellow River drainage basin.

A ceremony to recognize the improvements made to the three structures was held on Aug. 13 at Collins Hill Park in the Lawrenceville area.
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