Recommended Actions
The Davis Creek Watershed Management Plan
August 1996
Note: This is a Special Summary of the Recommended Actions
contained in the Davis Ceeek Managment Pland prepared in HTML.
This document complements the Executive
Summary of the Davis Creek Watershed Management Plan
which is also available in HTML form. A periodic Davis Creek
Newsletter is also published through The Forum for Kalamazoo
County and will be posted as available at the Davis Creek web site. The Forum
for Kalamazoo County is a nonprofit, private organization which
works to improve Kalamazoo County for its residents in a
nonpartisan way.
Davis Creek Clean Water Action Plan Includes Education,
Remediation and Redevelopment
Scores of individuals have participated in the Davis Creek
watershed planning process and have contributed to its success.
These persons provided valued input, great depths of expertise
and wide-ranging perspectives of the various water quality
problems which were identified. As a consequence, many creative
and fruitful ideas have come forward.
Forty-eight recommended action items are described in the full
text of the Davis Creek Watershed Plan. The specific work task
recommendations are designed to further the attainment of the
stated water quality objectives. The recommendations are not
considered all inclusive, nor should the recommended actions be
construed as a universal deficiency throughout all communities in
the watershed. Indeed, a fundamental recommendation of the plan
is the cooperative pursuit of coordinated watershed management
practices among the independent jurisdictions. This will increase
the consistency of local land use and drainage practices
throughout the watershed.
A major component of the Davis Creek Watershed Plan is a
detailed work proposal for a grant funded Implementation Project.
The proposed three-year work program, funded by the Michigan
Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ), will implement
specific actions for the remediation and control of nonpoint
source pollution (NPS).
Recommended Actions of the Watershed Management Plan
The Watershed Management Plan contains 5 to 10 recommended
action items (programmatic work tasks) for each general issue
area:
Davis Creek Watershed Plan
Summary List of Recommended Actions
Davis Creek, also sometimes referred to as Allen Creek or the
Olmsted-Davis Drain, is a highly modified, predominately urban
drainage corridor located in central Kalamazoo County. In recent
years this watershed has been identified as one of the most
polluted tributaries of the county which directly impacts the
water quality of the Kalamazoo River.Community leaders recognized
that pollution from Davis Creek is a potential threat to current
community efforts to revitalize the river corridor downstream
from Davis Creek, such as the Annen Sports Complex. In 1995/96
concerned citizens, community leaders, public officials and
environmental professionals initiated a grant funded work program
to develop a watershed management plan for Davis Creek. The full
Watershed Management Plan, which is available through the River
Partners Program of the Forum for Kalamazoo County, contains 5 to
10 recommended action items (programmatic work tasks) for each of
nine general issue areas. These recommended actions are briefly
listed in this summary paper.
| Public Education
and Awareness |
- Initiate a graphic design competition to create a
Davis Creek Watershed signage.
- Install Davis Creek signage at major creek
crossings and other appropriate locations.
- Stencil urban storm sewer inlets.
- Prepare and distribute a Davis Creek watershed
newsletter for the Davis Creek watershed
implementation project.
- Promote streambank re-vegetation and
bioengineering techniques.
- Implement a property owner NPS education and
on-site assistance program targeted toward
industrial, commercial and concentrated
residential properties.
- Create a speakers list of water quality
protection and related topics to be made
available to public/private organizations seeking
program speakers.
- Support ongoing community environmental programs
which provide water quality benefits (i.e. soil
conservation, groundwater protection, household
hazardous waste collection, recycling and County
HAZMAT).
|
| Community
Involvement; Effective Citizen Stewardship |
- Seek to create an annual "river" or
"watershed" festival similar to the
famous Kalamazoo Flower Festival.
- Expand the Creek Watch Hot Line of the River
Partners Program to include periodic meetings
with designated liaisons of responsible agencies.
- Host in-county workshops and/or conferences on
water quality issues.
- Encourage school districts to incorporate
watershed education and an annual watershed
appreciation day into the curricula.
- Create a self sustaining adopt-a-creek program
for Davis Creek.
- Assist citizen groups and neighborhood
associations in self-directed efforts to engage
members in watershed protection.
- Create an annual Citizen Award program for
watershed protection efforts.
|
| Watershed
Master Planning and Public Stewardship |
- Create an empowered interagency committee to
further the initiatives of the Davis Creek
implementation project.
- Initiate integrated engineering re-design of the
Davis Creek drainage corridor to creatively
mitigate the detrimental effects of the disturbed
hydraulics of Davis Creek.
- Develop a long-term data collection strategy for
monitoring the Davis Creek watershed.
- Seek grant funding to evaluate contaminated
groundwater impacts to the water quality of Davis
Creek.
- Use the Davis Creek Watershed Project as a model
with which to encourage similar watershed
planning efforts.
|
| Municipal
Storm Water Management |
- Implement a structured storm drainage system
inspection and maintenance program to protect the
public's safety, water quality and the
infrastructure investment.
- Initiate an appropriately scaled water quality
management program for all municipal storm water
drainage systems.
- Seek creative funding mechanisms to finance
regular drainage system inspection, maintenance
and water quality management programs.
- Pursue cost-shared implementation of
site-specific nonpoint source remediation
projects through the MDEQ grant funded Davis
Creek Implementation Project and other assistance
programs.
|
| Earth Movement,
Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control |
- Pursue improved coordination and enhanced
enforcement of Act 347 of 1972, Soil Erosion and
Sedimentation Control.
- Assure Act 347 permitting officers posses MDEQ
certification and receive annual training.
- Notify municipal storm water owners/operators of
any Act 347 permits issued within their system
service area.
- Train on-street employees to recognize and report
soil erosion control problems.
- Fund expanded Act 347 monitoring through monthly
permit fees adjusted for total area of unstable
soils per month.
|
| Site
Development Design Standards |
- Develop minimum stream corridor setbacks and
other critical area site design standards to
provide water quality protection.
- Promote drainage management strategies which
consider both the quantity and quality impacts of
storm water runoff.
- Develop storm water management requirements which
encourage on-site management whenever possible.
- Restrict new, potentially significant NPS
polluting facilities (e.g. industrial/commercial
sites, parking lots, major roadways) from
conveying runoff directly to a water body.
- Provide public authority or other legal
arrangements to assure long-term maintenance of
privately installed storm water management
systems.
- Monitor temporary erosion controls concurrent
with building construction inspections.
- Complete dye or other positive testing of waste
drains prior to issuing a certificate of
occupancy.
|
| Land Use
Planning |
- Identify stream corridor environmental features
(e.g. flood control, water quality protection,
habitat) to be protected through local land use
planning.
- Protect significant features through local land
development standards.
- Preserve urban stream corridor greenways.
- Restrict environmental high-risk land use
activities from locating in watershed critical
areas.
|
| Intergovernmental
Cooperation and Coordination |
- Seek to implement the community retention basins
recommended in the Olmsted-Davis Creek Drainage
Study.
- Initiate dialogue and establish working liaisons
among the ten local agencies with ACT 347
permitting authority.
- Provide public trash/litter containers at high
pedestrian traffic locations along the creek.
- Initiate coordinated, interjurisdictional
development of model: stream corridor land use
ordinance; drainage ordinance; construction
details for stream crossings, roadways and
parking lots; NPS nuisance pollution ordinance,
and; operational guides for street sweeping,
roadway deicing, etc.
|
| Remediation
of Contaminated Sites; Urban Redevelopment; Sustainable
Growth |
- Establish a local governmental liaison group to
coordinate local involvement in state/federal led
environmental cleanups.
- Seek to reconstruct natural riparian conditions
concurrently with any brown field redevelopment.
- Seek removal of trapped sediment and dismantle
the Davis Creek dam at Lakeside.
- Establish training certification programs for
bulk chemical users, similar to certification
required for restricted use pesticides.
|
Acknowledgments. The major source
of funding for developing the Davis Creek Watershed Plan was
provided through a MDEQ water quality planning grant of $49,980.
An additional $16,200 in local funding was obtained through
participating agency contributions. The responsibility for local
agency project administration was accepted by the Kalamazoo Soil
Conservation District, with substantial programmatic assistance
provide by the River Partners Program of the Forum For Kalamazoo
County. Local funding support included specific services from the
following organizations: River Partners Program of The Forum For
Kalamazoo County, KAR Laboratories, Inc., Kieser and Associates,
Inc., the Cities of Kalamazoo and Portage and Kalamazoo County.
Other assistance to this effort included the extremely valuable
time which was contributed by the many individuals and
organizations who served on the Davis Creek Steering Committee
and participated in various public work sessions. We gratefully
acknowledge these valuable contributions towards improving the
waters of Davis Creek and to the quality of life within the
Kalamazoo River basin. For additional information,
please call the River Partners Program at (616) 337-7382.
Davis Creek Watershed
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