and
drainage improvement and channel rectification.
The
North Platte NRD has had a part in developing several projects
in the basin, usually working with partners such as the USDA
Natural Resources Conservation Service and Natural Resources
Commission. Brief summaries of these projects:
Gering
Valley Drain Project |
This
on-going project initially started in the 1960s, before the
NRD came into existence. Gering Valley is sponsored locally
by the North Platte NRD and funded by the USDA's PL-566 watershed
and flood control program. It is a joint effort of the NRD,
Scotts Bluff County, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the Departmendt of
Defense Corps of Engineers. One of the state's most extensively
engineered PL-566 projects, it protects a 57,600-acre watershed
south of Gering in Scotts Bluff County. The project has several
dams and flood control channels designed to control the water
flowing out of the surrounding canyons before it can enter the
town of Gering.
Structurally, Gering Valley includes nine floodwater retarding
structures, 10 miles of diversions, 31 miles of channel improvement,
and 35 miles of surface water disposal channels. Underground
pipes and land treatment measures also are a part of the project.
The project cost has been about $7.6 million, with PL-566 funds
making up $4,756,400 of that. For every dollar spent, $1.50
was returned in the amount of benefits gained. In 1998 dollars,
the average annual benefits of the Gering Valley Project are
$1,660,300.
Operation and maintenance of the Gering Valley project is carried
on by a joint committee made up of the NRD, Scotts Bluff County,
Gering-Fort Laramie Irrigation District, Gering Irrigation District,
and Central Irrigation District.
Yensen Drain, constructed during Fiscal Year 2001, was one of
the last drains built in the Gering Valley Drain Project.
The
Lover's Leap Project two miles southeast of Harrisburg in Banner
County drains a 14.5-square-mile area and protects 5,000 acres
of flood plain. The flood- and silt-control dam was completed
in 1985 to address problems with erosion, sediment and flood
water damage from frequent thunderstorms that were brief but
high-intensity. The cost of the dam and streambank stabilization
was shared by the USDA Resource Conservation and Development
(75 percent) and the North Platte NRD (25 percent).
Four
dams in Garden County help protect agricultural lands from damaging
floods:
The
Jackson-Paisley-Robinson Project southeast of Oshkosh
was built in 1976 to prevent flood damages to crops, pastures,
range, roads, irrigation canals, field ditches, fences and farmsteads.
In addition to the dam, conservation practices were applied
to the surrounding land, including grazing, cropping and irrigation
management practices.
Briscoe
Dam three miles northeast of Lewellen was built
in 1980 to address a problem with floodwater and sediment damaging
cropland, irrigation canals, pastures, roads and bridges. Resource
Conservation and Development paid for construction, and the
NRD paid administrative costs.
Wes
Clark Dam is 4.5 miles east of Lewellen. Built
in 1980, it also protects the surrounding area from sedimentation
and flood damage. The costs were shared by RC&D (75 percent)
and the NRD (25 percent). The project also involved some critical
area planting and fencing.
Dormann
Dam is three miles north and a half mile east of
Oshkosh. Drainage from 1,600 acres in that area was causing
sedimentation problems and leaving debris that clogged a bridge
on Highway 27 north of Oshkosh before the dam was built in 1978.
The cost was shared by RC&D and the NRD.
