The Eureka Springs Parks and Recreation Commission has recently been awarded a grant for a watershed assessment at Lake Leatherwood and discussed at its June 7 workshop $55,000 that will come from the commission as part of the matching grant.

Sandi Formica, executive director of the Water Conservation Resource Center in Fayetteville, told commissioners the importance of the study on Lake Leatherwood.

“Whenever you do watershed assessments, you’re generating baseline data that can help support later to find solutions to problems that are identified,” Formica said. “So, this is like just basic data and information needed to be able to address issues that you guys are seeing in the Lake Leatherwood watershed.”

Formica said the project is three-tiered. “One is to evaluate Lake Leatherwood

“One is to evaluate Lake Leatherwood and the 13-square-mile watershed and look at sources of sediment and nutrients and to estimate the loadings of those sources,” she said. “And two is to evaluate the condition of the lake and determine the extent of sediment accumulation. Identify invasive and other aquatic species of plants that are impacting the quality of the lake for recreation and review historical water quality data and other studies conducted on the lake and collect additional data as needed.

“And then the third is develop solutions to rehabilitate the lake. And that’s going to involve forming a planning committee and discuss the options and in through the data.”

Formica said the total cost of the project is $352,607, the federal grant toward that amount is $183,045 and non-federal amount is $151,640.

“That nonfederal match is a combination of cash match and in-kind match, so $55,000 of that is the cash match,” Formica said. “And then the remainder is in-kind match that comes from Eureka Springs staff time, volunteer time and we developed a budget and came up with a justification for that amount of match.”

The project will begin in October and the commission has two years to come up with the $55,000, Formica said.