The Portneuf River Watershed Project: Targeting Sustainable Water Quality Improvements

submitted by:

Three Rivers Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D) Council, Inc. in cooperation with

Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Idaho State University Idaho Department of Environmental Quality City of Pocatello Bannock County J.R. Simplot Company Rapid Creek Research, Inc. Portneuf Soil and Water Conservation District Idaho Association of Soil Conservation Districts Idaho Soil Conservation Commission USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service Portneuf Marsh Valley Canal Company

Hydrologic Unit Code: The Portneuf River Watershed 8-digit HUC level, 17040208 Impaired Waters: Idaho’s 2002 303(d) list includes five impairments in the Portneuf River Watershed. Impairments in order of decreasing river kilometers impaired include unknown causes (3 water body segments impaired; 408 km), sediments (10 segments; 321 km), pathogens (4 segments; 72 km), bacteria (4 segments; 51.2), and nutrients (2 segments; 34).

Contact Information: Mr. Kent Rudeen, Chairperson Three River RC&D Council 1551 Baldy Ave. Suite 4 Pocatello, ID 83201 Phone: (208) 237-4628 ext 102 Fax: (208) 237-3412

Tax Exempt Status: 501(C)(3)

Website: www.portneufriver.org

Additional material about the watershed can be found at the Portneuf River Ecosystem Project (PREP) site: http://www.isu.edu/bios/prep/

1 ABSTRACT Here we propose to implement on-the-ground projects and innovative research and outreach in the Portneuf River Watershed. This work will benefit from use and operation of a state-of-the-art and locally supported continuous monitoring network that spans over 80 river kilometers and provides near-real time information on water quality. The very existence of this network enabled us to target the most impaired regions of the watershed and focus restoration efforts accordingly. Our proposal targets Marsh Creek, the largest tributary to the Portneuf and one of Idaho’s 22 most degraded streams, and a reach of the Portneuf River on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation impaired from livestock grazing. We will also evaluate innovative practices to mitigate urban impairments associated with the storm sewer system and a channelized river reach. A multifaceted outreach program which will include the development of a dynamic watershed information system that offers new opportunities for more integrated internet-based interaction will be used to disseminate our findings.

PROJECT NARRATIVE 1.0 Watershed Characterization The Portneuf River sub-basin encompasses 3,434 km2 of Bannock, Bingham, Caribou, and Power counties in southeast Idaho. Its 156-km length is fed by 927 km of perennial streams, 1,453 km of intermittent streams, and approximately 225 km of excavated canals. Agriculture is the dominant land use (range and crop land make up 48% and 33% of the sub-basin, respectively); forest and urban lands comprise only 13% and 3% of the sub-basin (Krajewski 2002). The river originates and is fed by high mountain streams on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. At the reservation boundary it flows into Chesterfield Reservoir, below which water is withdrawn for irrigation. Municipal wastewater inputs enter the Portneuf from downstream municipalities; the largest of which is the City of Pocatello (Figure 1). The largest tributary to the Portneuf River is Marsh Creek, draining nearly one third of the watershed. Multiple segments of the Portneuf River and Marsh Creek have been listed as impaired for sediment, pathogens, bacteria, and nutrients (IDEQ 2005). Still, the Portneuf watershed provides many opportunities for recreation including hiking, biking, swimming, paddling, soaking in natural mineral hot springs (www.lavahotsprings.com), skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, hunting, and fishing. Improving the health of the watershed is critical to sustaining these recreational opportunities. While it shares problems common to many rivers in the U.S., the Portneuf River is unique among rivers in Idaho and the Pacific Northwest. As one of its most distinguishing traits, it originates and ends on a Native American Reservation (Fort Hall Indian Reservation), but the majority of the Portneuf’s path is through non-reservation lands. On and off the Reservation, it meets the water needs for more than 72,000 people. The multijurisdictional setting of the Portneuf River creates an interesting and challenging sociopolitical water management situation that can serve as a model for problem solving in other multijurisdictional watersheds. The Portneuf River has been impaired by land use and hydrologic alterations that have caused increased concentrations of ions and sediment and changes in thermal conditions. Although these impairment problems are not unique, the Portneuf River merits significant, targeted study because of the way these impacts cross jurisdictional boundaries (i.e. reservation, cities, counties, school and watershed districts) creating a sense of ‘our’ versus ‘their’ problems which serve to hinder our ability to address these impacts. This proposal will build on a substantial existing collaborative effort. The Greater Portneuf River Watershed Partnership includes representatives from industry, educational institutions, scientists, and government agencies (City, County, State, Tribal, and Federal) established to facilitate monitoring of water quality and ecological conditions in the Portneuf River. The group has met regularly for over 5 years to examine and disseminate information on local surface and groundwater issues. Participation by Idaho State University (ISU) has resulted in increased research and participation of graduate, undergraduate, and K-12 students. We have established a state-of-the-art and locally supported continuous monitoring network that spans over 80 river kilometers and provides near-real time information on water quality that is accessible to the public. These efforts have already helped break down barriers of misunderstanding in the watershed. The work proposed here will make significant progress towards our ultimate goal of a healthy sustainable watershed by tackling documented agricultural and municipal water quality problems through an array of proven management approaches and the implementation of innovative techniques which have no borders. 2.0 Project Need The Portneuf River is a major tributary to the Snake River that has documented water quality problems that affect aquatic life and threaten the benefits provided by this shared and culturally significant resource. Seasonally, the river experiences elevated sediment loads associated with agricultural activities in upper parts of the watershed. For example, agricultural land use along Marsh Creek has led to water quality conditions that have placed it among the worst 22 streams in Idaho for soil erosion problems, and listing as the number one priority stream affected by agriculture (Krajewski 2002). Impairments described in Marsh Creek are present to a lesser degree in other portions of the watershed on and off the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. On the upper Portneuf River, within the Reservation, water quality impairments and habitat degradation have been attributed to livestock in riparian habitats. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Water Quality Program conducted monitoring on two 200 m reaches of the Upper Portneuf in 2005 as part of a Reservation-wide bioassessment project. E. coli concentrations ranged from 326-816 CFU/100 ml, and Wolman Pebble Counts indicated that fines (< 2.5mm) made up over 90% of the particles within the stream’s wetted width. The Tribes’ modified Stream Macroinvertebrate Score for the lower of these two reaches was 44, below the median score for other Reservation streams (51.5), and the richness of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera was much lower than the average for the Idaho Basin Bioregion (Grafe 2002). Although municipal lands represent a small area of the watershed (2.6%, or 90 km2), we have documented seasonal impacts from municipalities on water quality. Like many cities, Pocatello has a system that directs untreated storm water into a local river. During an 11-day period encompassing much of the spring runoff in 2004, one stormwater drain was estimated to empty approximately 15,500 lbs of sediment into the Portneuf (Inouye unpublished).

3 In 1968, a 9 km flood control project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers created a concrete stream channel with vertical side walls along a roughly 2.5 km reach in the City of Pocatello (USACE 2006). Monitoring over the past four years has shown that concentrations of E. coli at the downstream end of the channel have regularly exceeded IDEQ’s primary and secondary contact standards during the summer. Thus, significant channel modifications combined with low flows resulting from drought and irrigation have led to the regular reoccurrence of elevated levels of bacterial pathogens in the Lower Portneuf River. These examples of impairments in the Portneuf River illustrate the complexity of water quality and quantity issues in our watershed. Idaho’s 2002 303(d) list of impairments has been supplemented by findings from locally supported continuous monitoring, the Greater Portneuf Water Resource Partnership (GPWRP), and ongoing research at ISU. The continuous monitoring network provides water quality data from multiple locations at high temporal resolution. We have developed empirical relationships between optical turbidity, suspended sediment concentrations, and particulate phosphorus (Inouye and Ray 2002) allowing for the expanded measurement of other parameters. The spatial distribution of this network has made it possible to target the most impaired regions of the watershed and focus restoration efforts with greater spatial and temporal precision. 3.0 Project Plan 3.1. Overview We will take a five component approach to our goal of a healthy sustainable watershed. 1. We will expand an existing water quality monitoring network that provides continuous and near real-time data from 7 locations within the watershed. 2. We will implement key on-the-ground projects including fencing and planting on approximately 1.6 km of the Portneuf River on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation and elimination of run-off from six to eight animal feeding operations using a combination of BMPs. 3. We will determine if two management practices, removal of sediment within a channelized portion of the Portneuf River and installation of storm drain protection, reduce impacts on water quality within Pocatello, the largest urban area in the watershed. 4. We will establish reference water quality conditions and the natural hydrologic regime for the Portneuf River using proven analytical and modeling methods. 5. We will disseminate water quality/quantity information through a variety of outlets including traditional media, coursework, outreach to K-12 schools using an approach adopted by ISU’s National Science Foundation funded GK-12 program, and a novel ’next generation’ web based Community Watershed Portal that will support data sharing and dialogue within the watershed community. This proposed work is consistent with the President Bush’s environmental policy which calls for the use of low cost investigations and proven BMP’s to provide immediate and measurable water quality improvements.

4 3.2 Project Components 3.2.1 Monitoring - existing and proposed Our approach relies heavily on, and will build significantly upon, a locally-supported monitoring network that includes private and public partners dedicated to environmental stewardship and an established volunteer program that helps to engage community members in local environmental issues. Water quality is measured continuously at seven stations using YSI 6-series environmental monitoring systems, including sondes and 650 Multi-parameter Display System (650 MDS) microcomputers. Each sonde measures water temperature, specific conductance, DO, pH, and optical turbidity, and is interfaced with a data logger for on-site data storage. Data are transferred at two-hour intervals to a server, which uploads data in raw form to an FTP site from which performance is monitored on a daily basis. Malfunctions of probes and sensors can be identified through review of trend charts maintained on the World Wide Web site. River stage is monitored by USGS at four gauging stations located within the Portneuf Basin. We are measuring river stage at three of the monitoring sites (Portneuf River at Edson Fichter and at Batise Road, Marsh Creek below Walker Creek). We propose expanding the spatial coverage of the monitoring network with a station at the Fort Hall Reservation boundary near Chesterfield Reservoir (Figure 1). This will fill a critical gap in the current monitoring network supporting hydrologic modeling in the watershed (see below) and allowing for significantly more informed long term analysis and assessment of project results. 3.2.2 Implementation of BMPs Upper Portneuf: The upper Portneuf River within the Fort Hall Indian Reservation boundaries has water quality and habitat problems related to livestock grazing. To improve streambank stability and riparian vegetation and to protect water quality a steel jack-and-rail fence will be constructed along approximately 1.6 km of an impaired stream segment above the Chesterfield Reservoir (Figure 1). This fence will be built with in-kind contributions from the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Resident Fisheries Program staff, along with supervision provided by a fencing contractor. Ancillary benefits will include wildlife habitat improvement and aesthetics. Water Quality Program staff will also construct and maintain a continuous water quality monitoring station to document water quality conditions and river stage prior to and following the installation of fence. This station will operate under normal (ice-free) weather conditions in a manner that is consistent with the existing monitoring network and will conform to the approved quality assurance project plan for the Portneuf River. Marsh Creek: Marsh Creek is the largest tributary to the Portneuf River. Nearly 30 years ago, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare concluded that agricultural land use activities were negatively impacting water quality in both Marsh Creek and the Portneuf River. Marsh Creek is still listed among Idaho’s 22 worst streams for soil erosion problems and was listed as the number one priority stream affected by agriculture (Krajewski, 2002). Activities proposed for Marsh Creek seek to eliminate run-off from 6-8 animal feeding operations and improve riparian habitat and grazing management in the watershed. The Portneuf River TMDL Agricultural Implementation Plan identified 112 animal feeding operations with lack of drinking water sources, inadequate waste storage, and locations where runoff from corrals or pens was directly received by Marsh

5 Creek. Of those facilities, 35 are “Tier 1” or have a direct and substantial influence on the stream. Our goals for Marsh Creek are to reduce sediment, nutrients, and bacterial loads from the animal feeding operations by 1) developing nutrient management plans and improving waste storage, 2) improving grazing management through planned grazing rotations and development of off-stream watering, and 3) improving riparian vegetation through streambank fencing and planting. 3.2.3 Tests of New Management Practices Sediment loading: To increase our understanding of sediment transport within Pocatello we will install storm drain inlet protection in a portion of the Pocatello watershed that is served by a single outfall to the Portneuf River, using a comparable area as a control. We will measure sediment loading into each drain with an optical turbidity sensor that will be independently calibrated with direct measurements of suspended sediment concentration (SSC), and we will measure sediment retention in the experimental drain by quantifying the mass of sediments captured in storm drain inlet filter sacks. Relationships between sediment mass, particulate phosphorus, and organic content have been used elsewhere in the watershed (Inouye and Ray 2002) and provide a means of estimating suspended sediment and phosphorus loading using a continuous turbidity record. Bacterial concentrations: Water samples taken from the Portneuf River over the past three years revealed concentrations of E. coli that frequently exceeded IDEQ primary or secondary contact standards. Concentrations exceeding contact standards of E. coli were almost exclusively within or immediately downstream of the channelized portion of the river within Pocatello. Consistent with other studies, we have documented much higher concentrations of E coli in sediments within the channel, and we have measured reproduction and longer survival of E. coli in in-situ microcosms that contain sediment. We hypothesize that some aspect(s) of the channel, perhaps limited direct sunlight (UV) reaching the bed because of the tall walls, or the absence of vascular plants that could support a diverse protozoan community (predators), allows bacterial populations to persist in sediment, and that the sediment serves as a reservoir from which bacteria are continually released into the water column. We will test sediment removal from the channel bottom as a management practice to reduce the concentration of E. coli in the Portneuf River. During the period of low flows (mid June – September, when E. coli concentrations are typically highest) we will use sandbags to create 4 separate parallel flow paths within the concrete channel and pressure wash the bottom to wash sediment from two of these paths. We will then monitor E. coli concentrations at the up stream and down stream ends of each flow path to test whether sediment removal does reduce the increase in bacterial contamination. 3.2.4 Hydrologic Modeling A prerequisite for successful management and restoration of hydrologically-altered watershed is the establishment of a natural flow regime. A critical component of the proposed project is an assessment of hydrologic alteration of the Portneuf River and documentation of the ecological and water quality impacts of flow alteration. An implementation plan for restoration activities and exploration of pollutant trading

6 programs requires a basic understanding of reference and existing conditions throughout the watershed. A standard method for assessing hydrologic alteration (Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA) approach developed by The Nature Conservancy) requires pre-alteration flow data, which are not available for the Portneuf River. To remedy this and other shortcomings of IHA, Van Kirk (ISU Dept. Mathematics) developed and applied new methods for assessing hydrologic alteration to the Henry’s Fork and South Fork of the Snake River. This work revealed that assessment and restoration of hydrologic regimes requires different methods in each watershed due to differences in physical setting, water use patterns, and data availability. Because the Portneuf River is a relatively small contributor of surface water to the large upper Snake River system, detailed records of storage and diversion are not available (as they are for the much larger Henry’s Fork and South Fork). Thus, estimation of natural hydrologic regimes and their statistical comparison with altered regimes will require innovative quantitative methods, which will be developed within the general framework that has been successful elsewhere. Restoring important components of the hydrologic regime will likewise require watershed-specific approaches. For example, large storage reservoirs on the Snake River provide enough flexibility for water managers to restore hydrograph components while still meeting demands of water rights holders, but the Portneuf lacks the reservoir capacity for this approach. Purchase of water rights can assist restoration, but it is too expensive to implement on a watershed scale. We have identified two opportunities for substantial hydrologic restoration on the Portneuf River. The first is subdivision of agricultural land for development. In our semi-arid climate, water demand for domestic use (per acre) is much less than for irrigated agriculture, hence use conversion offers great potential for reducing withdrawals of surface water for irrigation. Second, although accounting of water rights in the Portneuf River watershed has generally been overlooked by the Idaho Department of Water Resources (IDWR), a series of lawsuits filed by senior water rights holders have forced IDWR to tighten its accounting and enforcement in smaller basins such as the Portneuf. Enforcement of water rights law in the Portneuf Basin will reduce diversions from the Portneuf River so that this water may be left in the system to satisfy senior rights holders downstream. The proposed project will provide both the assessment and restoration plans necessary to take advantage of both of these types of flow restoration opportunities. Results of the analysis can be considered ‘backcasts’ of pre-alteration conditions, and will serve as a baseline for understanding water management in the watershed. Time series data sets of simulated pre-alteration and real post-alteration flows in the watershed will be made available through a dynamic data query interface in the proposed Community Watershed Portal (described below). 3.2.5 Outreach Outreach coordinator supported by this project will be a critical contact point for the various community groups working on different aspects of the watershed, for connecting with new partners and stakeholders, for teachers seeking resources for community-based environmental education, and for the specific outreach projects supported by this project. GK-12 Program: For the last three years the ISU NSF-funded GK-12 program has paired graduate students with teachers in local K-12 classrooms to provide scientific expertise to teachers, develop inquiry-based lesson plans, and develop outreach

7 communication skills in future scientists. The Portneuf River has been a focus of partnerships each year, with students from two high schools, one middle school, an alternative school, and a charter school participating in water quality projects. We have identified a clear need to support one graduate student to help science teachers in Marsh Valley schools develop lesson plans focused on water quality and ecology in Marsh Creek and the Portneuf River. The ISU GK-12 program has used the on-line resources (www.portneufriver.org) and practicing scientists to supplement classroom activities (see Ray and Beardsley in press). We have learned that the use of authentic science is important for engaging students and Athman and Monroe (2004) have demonstrated that environment-based programs have a positive effect on students’ achievement motivation. We will build on our successes with the ISU GK-12 project (Inouye is a Co-PI) and apply our successful model to a school located in the Marsh Creek watershed. Placemats: Funding in previous EPA grants supported development and distribution of two different placemats, both focused on water quality and quantity in the Portneuf watershed, to local restaurants, schools, and community groups. Given their great popularity, we plan to develop additional materials for this type of outreach for a larger audience. Traditional Media: Because access to web-based material is still limited in some rural areas within our region, we will continue to develop outreach materials aimed at local radio, community and agricultural newsletters, and newspaper outlets. With an increased focus on inter-jurisdictional collaboration, we will direct some of these efforts at the Reservation newspaper. Community Watershed Portal: Technological advances in ‘user-driven’ standards- based web portals and data management tools in recent years have opened new opportunities for significantly more integrated internet-based interaction between watershed activists, managers, stakeholders, scientists, and decision makers. The proposed Community Watershed Portal will coordinate an already impressive collection of physical, chemical, and biological information about the Portneuf River, and provide tools to expand and improve outreach efforts. In a user-driven web portal, end-user individuals are the primary content providers for a web-site (such as in the case of “blogs,” discussion forums, WIKI’s, etc.). To date, the user-content-provider paradigm has not been applied on a large scale in the context of a web-based watershed information system although such an approach should be very well suited to the needs of an active watershed community. The Community Watershed Portal will build on the existing Portneuf River Watershed site to create a dynamic watershed information system that allows stakeholders, managers, and scientists to interactively modify, edit, and update datasets, documents, and photographs. Live forums will encourage active discussion of critical issues in the watershed (e.g. agricultural CRP regulatory changes, TMDL development, and water rights acquisition for in-stream flows). Adoption of Open Geospatial Consortium standards for all geospatial datasets and mapping services will allow for client-side (i.e. local PC) access to raw data for creating maps and doing complex analyses. Interactive interfaces to simple hydrologic and water quality simulation models (developed with other funding and also as developed under this proposal) will be made available to evaluate future scenarios (e.g., climate change, land use). Equally important will be a

8 targeted ‘advertising’ outreach campaign in years 2-4 of the project to build interest in and use of the site. Feedback from users will be incorporated into the site by virtue of its user-centric design and by a part-time site moderator – initially funded through this project but later to be funded through ongoing support of Three Rivers and the ISU Geospatial Software Laboratory. The tools and technologies needed for our Web Community Portal already exist as open source web-mapping software, open portal systems, discussion forum software, and other tools with which our team has significant experience. We have used many of these tools in developing the http://www.MapWindow.org/ open source GIS software community and web site. Ongoing interaction with the CUAHSI and NEON (NSF proposed data observatories) communities will ensure that the data warehoused on the Portneuf Web Community Portal will integrate with those efforts, using common ‘cyber infrastructure’ designs where appropriate, and will frame the system as one of the first (albeit still a test case) watershed centric ‘node’ on a larger network of data observatories across the United States. 3.3 Partnering The Greater Portneuf Water Resources Partnership (GPWRP and formerly RGI working group) has been examining and disseminating information on issues related to surface and groundwater issues in the Portneuf River Watershed for over 5 years. The group is comprised of the cooperators identified on this proposal; the strength of this partnership stems from the collective experience of the diverse group of participants. ISU serves an important role in this group; the university connects experienced faculty and graduate students with natural resource management agencies, citizens, and elected officials. ISU also offers equipment and facilities not commonly available to watershed partnerships.

4. Anticipated Outputs And Outcomes Anticipated Outputs Anticipated Outcomes Install fencing & off-site watering sites, Improved water quality (reduced sediment and introduce native vegetation in upper P.R. bacterial loads) in the upper Portneuf River where it within the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. originates on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. Expand monitoring network. Add one Document changes in water quality resulting from monitoring station to characterize water implementation of BMPs. Establish baseline water quality in the upper Portneuf River at the quality data for the upper Portneuf River. Fort Hall Indian Reservation boundary. Implement BMPs & complete NMPs to Improved water quality in Marsh Creek as a result improve waste storage & reduce runoff of BMPs, documented with the existing monitoring from AFOs in Marsh Creek. BMPs can network & additional sampling in targeted areas include: planned grazing strategies, off- where BMP’s are put into place. stream watering facilities, fencing, & revegetation. Evaluate two management practices Recommend low cost management practices to (sediment removal in concrete channel & reduce constituents in stormwater & bacterial installation of storm drain protection), to concentrations in portions of the Portneuf River, reduce sediments and bacteria in urban practices may be applicable to other urban rivers. portions of the watershed

9 Quantify hydrologic alteration in the Propose innovative strategies to manage water Portneuf River. Determine how alteration delivery, storage, & diversion in order to produce a has been expressed. Use models to more natural hydrologic regime for the Portneuf develop innovative low cost strategies for River. restoring flows to the Portneuf River. Develop & deploy a Community Resource managers & planners have access to the Watershed Portal. The Portal will be a most current data & models for predicting the dynamic watershed information system impact of land use changes. Educators have access that allows stakeholders, managers, & to data & models for use in investigative lesson scientists to interactively modify, edit, & plans focused on the Portneuf River watershed. update datasets, documents, & photographs. Support an outreach coordinator to Increased public awareness of the importance & disseminate existing water quality & sensitivity of surface waters in the Portneuf River quantity information & findings from the watershed. proposed efforts while connecting to new partners through a variety of outlets. Recruit graduate students with training in A cadre of K-12 science teachers develops watershed science to work with math & scientific knowledge to develop investigative lesson science educators in rural schools (Marsh plans & familiarity with resources available Valley schools & the Shoshone-Bannock through ISU to support science in their classrooms. Jr/Sr High School). Attend U.S. EPA sponsored and other Increased awareness of our success in building a scientific meetings. community supported program focused on restoring & maintaining a multijurisdictional water resource. Learn new methods from other watershed projects.

5. Peer Outreach And Information Transfer Publications reporting monitoring data and results of municipal management experiments; availability of data on web site and Community Watershed Portal

6. Programmatic Capability And Expertise The initial working group (RGI) and the current Greater Portneuf Water Resources Partnership (GPWRP) have demonstrated significant programmatic capability and attracted significant expertise in basic science, data management, and outreach. This group will have primary oversight for the project. The prior RGI project achieved notable success in stimulating the use of mustard green manure to reduce pesticide use on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation; this practice is now accepted and spreading among landowners on and off the Reservation. The RGI was also successful in establishing the Portneuf River monitoring network, which is now entirely supported by private, municipal, and state funds, and in developing or contributing to new outreach programs that have reached many thousands of individuals throughout the watershed (e.g., placemats, environmental fairs, GK-12 projects). Data from the monitoring network have been subjected to an extensive QA/QC procedure and have been made available to researchers and to the IDEQ for use in updating TMDL documents for the Portneuf River.

10 Management expertise for the current project will be provided by Three Rivers RC&D. Paula Jones, RC&D Coordinator, will continue the successful and productive role she played as facilitator for the RGI and GPWRP, assisted by Jody Hogan, RC&D Accountant. Three Rivers RC&D manages multiple projects and grants in the 3 county area and has successfully fulfilled all reporting requirements from the various agencies and foundations. Technical expertise for the current project will be provided by faculty from Idaho State University (Drs. Ames, Baxter, Inouye, and Van Kirk), by IDEQ scientists (Dr. Ray, Van Every, Mladenka), by the City of Pocatello’s environmental coordinator (Dr. Sigler), by water quality scientists with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes (Tanaka, Pappani), and by strong leadership from the local, state, and federal agricultural agency scientists (Traher, Evans, Jenkins). The project will have access to significant and diverse analytical capabilities at Idaho State University (Biological Sciences, Geosciences) and through the City of Pocatello (Wastewater Treatment Plant) and the IDEQ.

11 Figure 1. Map of the Portneuf River Watershed. Proposed locations for a monitoring station in the Upper Portneuf River and BMPs on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation are shown. The Marsh Creek Watershed is highlighted to bring attention to the location where BMPs will be used to ameliorate impacts from animal feeding operations. The location for evaluating urban management practices (Pocatello) is shown in the Lower Portneuf River.

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