PLT12 - Running with the Bull - A Navigation of the NRCS Watershed Program Technical and Financial Assistance Policy

Structure No. 12 is one of eleven dams constructed within the Bull Creek Watershed in Columbus, Muscogee County, Georgia as part of a Watershed Work Plan adopted by the Soil Conservation Service (now Natural Resources Conservation Service, NRCS) and local sponsors in 1965. The construction of the dam reduced the flood limits downstream of the dam, which over time invited residential, commercial, and industrial development in these areas. The amount of downstream development resulted in the structure having one of the highest populations at risk downstream of an NRCS dam in Georgia.

In 2015, planning for the existing watershed structure began with the goal of obtaining technical and financial assistance for rehabilitation. The planning activities included the development of a Dam Breach Analysis and Assessment Report in 2015 and a Supplemental Watershed Plan-Environmental Evaluation (Plan-EE) in 2018.

The NRCS in Georgia requested design and construction funding to rehabilitate the dam after acceptance of the Plan-EE, and design documents to rehabilitate the dam were completed in 2021. In addition to rehabilitation of the spillway outlet works, which involved replacement of a non-standard riser structure and construction of a new, two-stage labyrinth-crested chute spillway with rock-anchored stilling basin, the project also included the removal of approximately 20,000 cubic yards of accumulated sediment from the lake impounded by the dam to extend the sediment storage life to the project. The quantity of sediment removal for this project represents the largest known dredging projects associated with an active NRCS watershed structure in Georgia. Construction of the rehabilitation measures was substantially completed during the fall of 2023.

The project represents a successful navigation of the NRCS Watershed Program Policy to obtain technical and financial assistance to rehabilitate a watershed dam that continues to support its original purpose and need. Presenters will share an outline of the NRCS planning process at the time the project was started, as well as provide a comparison to changes in the process that have occurred since.