Pocahontas Drainage Districts Improvements |
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The Consulting Engineers Council of Iowa award was given to Kuehl & Payer, Ltd. of Algona for their role in the planning, design, project administration and construction administration for the original drainage improvements and closure of 37 agricultural drainage wells in Drainage District No. 176, Pocahontas County, Iowa. The project was initiated by a petition submitted by eleven area landowners to the Pocahontas County Board of Supervisors. The intensely-farmed 3600-acre watershed had been drained for decades by privately-installed tile drain systems which discharged to 37 agricultural drainage wells. Drainage wells are typically 8-inch steel well casings bored up to 300 feet into underlying fractured limestone rock. Tile drainage waters entering the wells are dispersed into the underlying aquifer. Also known as injections wells, they are rated by the USEPA in the highest risk category of potential groundwater pollution sources. Landowners sought relief in part because the wells functioned poorly in extended wet periods, because the wells adversely affected the value of their properties, and because of anticipated state and federal regulatory control of the continued function of the wells. The Pocahontas County Board of Supervisors appointed Kuehl & Payer, Ltd. to recommend drainage solutions and to assist the landowners in selecting and constructing the necessary improvements. Kuehl & Payer, Ltd. recommended a system of alternative outlets that would allow closure of the drainage wells and at the same time improve agricultural production to generate funds to pay for the improvements. |
Over a period of several years Kuehl & Payer shepherded the proposed project through a complex and confusing array of federal and state regulatory reviews. The $2.1 million project was issued a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit by the Corps of Engineers. In securing this permit, Drainage District No. 176 achieved several firsts for agricultural drainage projects, including the first in the nation to successfully use wetland values to achieve less than acre-for-acre mitigation and the first in the nation to satisfy twenty-year-old Environmental Protection Agency rules which require an assessment of alternatives to drainage of farmed wetland before mitigation can be used. Upon completion of seven contracts for construction of the improvements and closure of the 37 drainage wells, the project has been a success for landowners in the district who have seen marked improvement in crop yields and who no longer need to deal with agricultural drainage wells or farmed wetlands. The project is also a success for the general public in that 37 high-risk avenues of potential aquifer contamination have been eliminated. |