Project Description

• Excessive erosion and sedimentation have plagued the approximately 7,700-acre D'Olive Watershed since the 1970s. Population growth and urban development have continued to intensify problems in each of the Watershed's three principal drainages (D'Olive Creek, Tiawasee Creek, and Joe's Branch) within the Cities of Daphne and Spanish Fort and associated unincorporated areas of Baldwin County. Increased volume and velocity of stormwater runoff, as well as changes to local drainage patterns, have exacerbated concerns over erosion and sedimentation within the Watershed's stream network, Lake Forest Lake, D'Olive Bay, and Mobile Bay. This WMP outlines a holistic approach to (1) reduce sediment sources; (2) repair degraded stream channels; and (3) restore the Watershed's hydrology to the maximum extent technically feasible.

Outreach Plan

• The purpose of the Public Outreach and Education Plan is to create a strategy for building widespread community understanding of the water quality issues affecting the D'Olive Watershed and, through this understanding, to foster increased stewardship of the Watershed. The goal is to inform, educate, and engage key stakeholders in an effort to improve the water quality of the D'Olive Watershed and Mobile Bay estuary through the reduction of stormwater runoff and the mitigation of its impacts throughout the watershed.

D’Olive Watershed Restoration Technical Workshop
On February 16 & 17, 2016, the MBNEP hosted a D’Olive Watershed Restoration Technical Workshop at 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center. All five engineering firms and both construction contracting firms involved in D’Olive Watershed restorations; nationally-recognized stream restoration specialists Greg Jennings, Dave Bidelspach, and Mike Geenan; hydrologist John Curry; sediment-loading expert Marlon Cook; Auburn University scientists and extension specialists, and municipal and MBNEP staffs shared strategies, techniques, lessons learned, and other trade secrets to facilitate the best project implementation possible in this challenging environment. It was an extraordinary event that benefited practitioners and degraded streams across coastal Alabama and beyond.