Flat Creek watershed plan ready for Aug. 26 unveiling

GAINESVILLE - The ultimate plan for watershed improvements for Gainesville-Hall County will be presented at a public meeting Tuesday, Aug. 26 at 6:30 at the Gainesville Civic Center.

Based on input from the public, and on the potential benefits from various watershed improvement alternatives, the city and county will finalize the plan for watershed improvement in Flat Creek.

Over the past year and a half, the City of Gainesville and Hall County have developed a plan that provides information about several opportunities to improve stream conditions in the Flat Creek Watershed.

The plan was designed to comply with requirements from the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District.

As part of this project, activities have been conducted to describe the current conditions in the Flat Creek Watershed, identify priority areas for potential watershed improvement projects, develop conceptual designs for high priority areas, and discuss implementation considerations such as feasibility, funding and timing.

This work has been funded with a Section 319(h) Clean Water Act grant that the city was awarded in 2005.

Because the watershed is split between Hall County and the City of Gainesville, the city has included the county to cost-share in the project and participate on the project team. The plan is documented in two reports that were prepared to comply with requirements for different funding sources. One of the reports, the Watershed Improvement Plan (WIP), was developed to meet requirements for the city's Section 319(h) grant, while the other report, the Ecosystem Restoration Report (ERR), was developed to potentially fund future restoration activities through Section 206 of the Water Resources Development Act.

In August 2007, the City of Gainesville and Hall County presented an overview of the project to the public, including a presentation on the existing and potential funding sources, project objectives, preliminary results, watershed and project location maps and project schedule. The city and county also gathered input from the public on projects that were evaluated.

In March 2008, the city and county held a second public meeting to present multiple watershed improvement alternatives consisting of both stream restoration and retrofits to existing structural storm water controls.