Upper Pascagoula Water Quality Enhancement Project
Implementing Organization
State of Mississippi; US Department of Agriculture; US Environmental Protection Agency
Overview
DWH Project Funding
$4,000,000
Known Leveraged Funding
$0
Funding Organization
Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustees (NRDA)
Funding Program
Natural Resource Damage Assessment NRDA
Details
Project Category
Environmental
Project Actions
Water Quality Restoration and Maintenance
Targeted Resources
Wetlands/Marshes/Estuaries
Project Description
The Upper Pascagoula River Water Quality Enhancement project will help restore injuries to water quality by developing and implementing conservation plans and practices to reduce nutrient and sediment runoff into coastal waters from the Chunky-Okatibbee watersheds. The health of the Gulf of Mexico depends on the health of its estuaries, and the health of those estuaries is influenced by land use upstream along tributary rivers. This project will improve water quality impacted by the spill and benefit marine resources. These watersheds were selected for the project based on the sediment load contributions to coastal waters. The project will provide outreach and technical assistance to voluntary participants (landowners) to develop conservation plans within a 20,000-acre area. Conservation practices, especially those systems that avoid, control, and trap nutrient and sediment losses, will be implemented on cropland, pasture/grassland, forestland, and associated agriculture land within the Chunky-Okatibbee watersheds. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the lead Implementing Trustee for the project working with fellow Implementing Trustees Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The project will be implemented in Clarke, Kemper, Lauderdale, Neshoba, and Newton counties.
Contact
Ronald Howard(601) 790-3754
ron.howard@ms.usda.gov
Project Website
None
For official trustee information regarding the Deepwater Horizon NRDA, including information regarding the NRDA process and the status of projects, see https://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/