DAPHNE, Ala. — Careful planning, cooperation and a firm commitment from each of the communities affected over the next decade will be key to addressing deficiencies—both natural and man-made—plaguing the D’Olive Bay Watershed.

Local residents have one week remaining to weigh in on a proposed Comprehensive Watershed Management Plan.

The plan is designed to combat the forces eroding the watersheds of D’Olive Creek, Tiawassee Creek and Joe’s Branch.

The plan, spearheaded by the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program and penned by Thompson Engineering of Mobile, creates a 10-year blueprint for remediating 40 years of damage to some of Baldwin County’s most sensitive environmental areas.

The proposal was borne of a coalition of federal, state and local agencies as well as development and real-estate interests and property owners and was unveiled three weeks ago during a public forum at 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center.

Glen Coffee, Thompson’s project manager for the proposal, specifically outlined detailed strategies for addressing sedimentation, creek-bank erosion, flooding and other issues associated with land-use changes and development in the Daphne, Spanish Fort and Malbis communities. Successful implementation, he cautioned, will hinge on the ability of the communities to work collaboratively to reverse the effects of prolonged surface runoff and sediment erosion in the 7,700-acre watershed.

The first step, Coffee said, will be the creation of a Watershed Restoration Task Force—representing all of the communities and interests affected—that will oversee the project’s progress and establish a funding mechanism.

Coffee, who said the plan’s total implementation costs could range anywhere from $20 million to $50 million, said resolution of the issues eroding the region’s natural resources and undermining the area’s ability to support its contributions to the second-fastest-growing county in the state, will require explicit cooperation from the cities of Daphne and Spanish Fort as well as the Baldwin County Commission.

Specifically, the plan details an implementation strategy designed to:

See the rest of this story in the July 21 Daphne Bulletin.

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Editor’s note: This is the third in a multi-part series examining the causes, impacts and proposed mitigation efforts for containing the deterioration of the D’Olive Bay Watershed.