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 south of Oshkosh before the dam was built in 1978.
The cost was shared by RC&D and the NRD.
