SPANISH FORT – Roberta Swann, director of the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, said the group has received verbal confirmation that $770,000 in grants has been allocated for the Joe’s Branch rehabilitation project. As a part of the greater D’Olive Watershed Management Plan (WMP), the project seeks to stabilize a large head-cut on upper Joe’s Branch that has the potential to threaten U.S. Highway 31 in a heavy rain event.

“We don’t have the official word yet,” Swann said, “but we know verbally that we will receive $570,000 from the EPA’s Section 319 program and $200,000 from ALDOT. The Dauphin Island Sea Lab will also provide some in-kind services.”

Swann said she would like to see construction begin within a year, although it would be best to wait until after the 2012 hurricane season.

“Right now we are working with the Geological Survey of Alabama to develop a baseline of conditions,” she said. “That is information that we will forward to an engineer to use in final plans for the project.”

The preliminary plans call for smoothing out what is essentially a 20-foot deep, 200-foot long gully into a “step-pool conveyance system,” which would allow water to permeate in pools constructed at several different elevations. Swann said that because much of the work would take place on property owned by Westminster Village, the MBNEP is looking to execute a conservation agreement with the retirement community. The City of Spanish Fort is also expected to remediate some of the storm water volume that enters the creek.