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Greetings!
The Deer Creek Watershed Alliance has been awarded The William C. Schock Clean Water Conservancy Award. This award is given annually by the Open Space Council to individuals, companies, corporations or organizations that have made a significant contribution to the health and quality of the clean water resources of the St. Louis Region. Past awards have gone to The Missouri Stream Team Program, The Monsanto Fund, Missouri River Relief and Missouri American Water for their clean water stewardship.
William C. Schock was a prominent St. Louis attorney and member of the board of directors of the Open Space Council for the St. Louis Region. Mr. Schock had a love for our beautiful free-flowing Missouri rivers and streams. It was William Schock's work in 1967 that lead to the development of Operation Clean Stream, a project designed to reverse the degradation of the Lower Meramec River. The project continues today after 42 years; the award is a tribute to Mr. Schock and a beacon for others to provide exemplary service to keep our rivers clean.
The Award will be presented at the Open Space Council's 45 Annual Meeting at Missouri Botanical Garden's Spink Pavillion, Thursday May 27, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. The evening will begin with a reception of wine, music and a silent auction. Dinner, awards and a presentation by Dr. Peter Raven, the President of the Missouri Botanical Garden, will follow.
Registration is $55.00 per person.
You can register online with a credit card or you can mail your check payable to The Open Space Council to PO Box 1468, Ballwin, MO 63022.
We
hope you can join us!
Sincerely,
Rick Holton
Chairman, Deer Creek Watershed Friends
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Deer Creek Watershed Alliance
Submission for William C. Schock Clean Water Conservancy Award Nomination
At the behest of a group of citizens living in the Deer Creek Watershed led by Richard C. Holton, and to help facilitate cleaner, safer water, Missouri Botanical Garden has initiated a Deer Creek Watershed Alliance. Project partners include Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, Washington University, East-West Gateway Council of Governments, Great Rivers Greenway (GRG), Missouri Department of Conservation, American Society of Civil Engineers-St. Louis Section, local municipalities, and non-profit organizations. This alliance is funded by project partners, the Mabel Dorn Reeder Foundation, and US EPA Region 7 through the Department of Natural Resources (subgrant number G09-NPS-13), under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act.
Deer Creek originates in Creve Coeur and flows southeast nearly 11 miles before it enters the River des Peres in Maplewood. It encompasses all or part of 22 municipalities including Creve Coeur, Des Peres, Frontenac, Huntleigh, Ladue, Clayton, Maplewood, Richmond Heights, Rock Hill, Webster Groves, and Brentwood. The watershed includes Deer Creek, as well as its tributaries Two-Mile Creek, Black Creek, Sebago Creek, Shady Grove Creek, Rock Hill Creek, Hampton Creek and Claytonia Creek.
The loss of water quality in urban areas is due to many factors. Some of these may include run-off during storm events from impervious surface areas, yard waste in streams, pet manure, invasive species, trash, and/or road salt. These factors can lead to increased water pollution, sedimentation, infrastructure damage, erosion and creek-widening resulting in property loss, flooding and property damage.
Deer Creek Watershed Alliance implementation strategies to address these concerns currently include 1) citizen-led voluntary public engagement activities, 2) the development of a watershed plan 3) implementation of demonstration bioretention projects and 4) monitoring of three of the demonstration projects to measure the projects' effectiveness in improving water quality.
The 2009 public engagement project was a creek clean up on April 25, 2009, led by Ladue citizens Randy and Fiona Woods. The clean up drew 571 volunteers, who removed 4.87 tons (9,740 pounds) of debris from Deer Creek and its tributaries. The 2010 public engagement project is a Deer Creek Tributaries Naming Project. There are over 30 unnamed tributaries in the watershed; names approved by local municipalities and endorsed the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District will be submitted to the Missouri Board of Geographic Names. Project results will be showcased at an international geographic naming conference in the fall.
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