Rice Creek Floodplain Restoration Project (Enbridge 2010 Oil Spill Kalamazoo River NRDAR)

Plan / Environmental Assessment. The Rice Creek Floodplain Restoration Project is among those projects selected by the Trustees to restore resources injured as a result of the discharge of oil into the Kalamazoo River. Rice Creek is a tributary of the Kalamazoo River. This section of Rice Creek was dredged in the past and dredge spoils were mounded along the banks, creating long berms that disconnected the stream from its floodplain. Reconnecting the stream and floodplain allows flood flows to spread out into the floodplain. This reduces water volumes and pressures that could erode stream banks and the bed downstream and allows sediment transported during high flows to settle naturally in the floodplain. The floodplain also provides an area of lower flow rates during floods and can be used by fish and other organisms as a refuge from fast, turbulent flows in the main channel. A previous project removed some of the berm of dredge material from the property, but subsequent monitoring has shown that another 6" of berm should be removed to allow the stream to fully reconnect with the floodplain. Water quality in this stream also affects water quality in the Kalamazoo River downstream. This project will remove an additional 6" of berm along 470' of Rice Creek. This is a notice of intent to award a single source cooperative agreement to Calhoun Conservation District without competition under justification 505DM 2.14.B.2 & 4. The required start date for this cooperative agreement is April 1, 2017 and the project period end date is September 30, 2018. Competition for the award is not practical as the Trustees have conducted a merit review process, documented in the DARP, to identify restoration projects, proposed by potential recipients of restoration funding, to compensate the public for damages to natural resources related to the 2010 Enbridge Oil Spill. In this case, the Trustees have selected a restoration project proposed by the Calhoun Conservation District to compensate the public for damages to natural resources. The Michigan Ecological Services Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be substantially involved in the Rice Creek Floodplain Restoration Project under this funding opportunity. In particular, the Service will be responsible for the following: on-site monitoring to document project implementation, monitoring to document ecological outcomes, and development and delivery of outreach materials to communicate to the public, stakeholders, and the Trustees the ecological outcome of restoration.