Officials celebrated the completion of the Hatchery Creek Restoration Project below Wolf Creek Dam during a dedication ceremony last week.
The ceremony was held for a 21-month stream and wetland mitigation project that triples the length of the stream and prevents sedimentation pollution from making its way into the Cumberland River.
The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources conceived the project decades ago, but really came to fruition in the last seven years.
Funding totaling $1.8 million, not including Corps funding for excavation, for the mitigation project on Corps of Engineers property came from monies held in a trust for stream and wetland restoration from the Kentucky Wetland and Stream Mitigation Fund.
Lt. Col. Stephen Murphy , the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District commander, said that the project is “unique” because of the partnership building between the state of Kentucky and federal agencies, and because it primarily offsets the impact of construction projects by reestablishing and enhancing about five and a half acres of valuable streams and wetlands.
“It also solved for us a massive erosion problem that was threatening several of our campsites and roadways at Kendall Campground ,” Murphy said. “ That was costing the Corps of Engineers almost $50,000 working on that. The completion of this project has completely solved that problem.”
The project gave the Corps of Engineers enough top soil to cover a 40-acre disposal area filled with limestone rock, concrete and clay from the Wolf Creek Dam Safety Rehabilitation Project.
The Corps spent $650,000 to excavate the soil, the solution that provided the most cost savings.
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