Pole Mountain Watershed Planning

For the past two years LRCD participated in the Upper Crow Creek Watershed Steering Committee to produce an Amendment to the Crow Creek Watershed Plan.  The Amendment is intended to address water quality concerns in the upper portion of the Crow Creek watershed located above Granite and Crystal Reservoirs, specifically bacteria impairments identified by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality on Middle Crow Creek and North Branch North Fork Crow Creek.  The Amendment was adopted in December and LRCD will continue to work with the Laramie County Conservation District to implement the plan in order to raise awareness and improve water quality in the Upper Crow Creek Watershed.

                                                 Routine Monitoring

We continued to sample 11 locations on the Big Laramie and Little Laramie Rivers, from the Medicine Bow Mountains to Bosler to evaluate the health of our major waterways.  We monitor pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, total dissolved solids, total suspended solids, and bacteria.  We also estimate the volume of water flowing through the channels per unit time every time we take samples.  This is the 8th year for the program over all and the fifth year under the direction of Tony Hoch, who holds a Ph.D. in geochemistry, has been a Geology and Environmental Science Professor, and who worked for the USGS, Water Resources Division for almost a decade.

Non-Point Source Pollution Program

In September of 2007 LRCD Section 319 grant awarded, through the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and the EPA Section 319

of the Clean Water Act.  It was titled: Upper Laramie River Non-Point Source Pollution Reduction Project.  In all the grant funded 6 big projects designed to reduce sediment runoff into the Big Laramie and Little Laramie Rivers, conducted semi-annual water quality monitoring for four years and conducted numerous water quality education classes and workshops.  Even without the 319 grant, LRCD will continue to monitor water quality, do water education outreach, and work to improve water quality in cooperation with the NRCS Environmental Quality Incentive Program, and the LRCD Rural Cost Share Program.