City, county launch watershed planning effort

Superior and Douglas County are joining forces to develop a watershed plan that could lead to federal funding for environmental projects.

The plan, expected to take about a year to develop, will focus on the Environmental Protection Agency’s nine elements for the Nemadji, Black, Pokegama and St. Louis River watersheds in Wisconsin. It will develop an analytic framework for managing efforts to improve water quality and protect overall watershed health.

“Overall, what we’re trying to do is move toward a more quantitative end of things,” said Sue O’Halleran, a consultant working with the Douglas County Land Conservation Office. “We’ve been doing outreach and education, and big picture, but in order to be eligible for federal grants as well as others, we have to be a little more quantitative.”...