OTTAWA — After being delayed by cuts in federal funding, Lake Region RC&D has completed a research study of water pollution along the Marais des Cygnes River and Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin and Anderson counties. The Middle Marais des Cygnes Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy study was supposed to take about a year-and-a-half, but took three years to complete because of cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture budget, Lake Region chair Don Stottlemire said. Lake Region had to shuffle people to get the study done, he said. The 300-page Lake Region study was the only one approved that wasn’t written by Kansas State University, he said. “There are a lot of the WRAPS projects across the state of Kansas that didn’t get completed because of the money cuts,” Stottlemire said. Area groups or governmental entities will be able to use the study to request state and federal grants for a wide variety of projects such as for monitoring local water pollution, streambank stabilization work, lake and river management, and control algae and bacteria levels, he said. The report will also serve as a reference guide to scientists and researchers, he said. “It’s kind of like having a law library,” Stottlemire said. “You have a case coming up, you have references to go to and that’s what this 300-page study is.” The Marais des Cygnes River basin has long been targeted by regulators because of pollution, much of it agriculture-related, in its streams. Water quality is a particular concern because the Marais des Cygnes and the reservoirs along the stream and its tributaries are the major, if not only sources, of drinking water for eastern Kansas and western Missouri.
Wednesday, June 5, 4 p.m.
