A Conversation with MillerCoors Grant Finalist - Porter County Soil & Water Conservation District

In the Midwestern region of the United States, crops are commonly grown on lands subject to drainage which uses drain tiles as water pathways. Drainage tiles discharge regularly to receiving ditches and the discharge from these tiles adversely impact the physical, chemical and biological quality of receiving ditches. The Porter County Soil and Water District in northwest Indiana is competing for a $25,000 grant to stabilize Cornell Ditch, improve its water quality and reduce flooding.

Q and A with Porter County Soil and Water District

RN: How does your proposed project complement your organization’s mission?

PCSWCD: Porter County Soil and Water District, like other S&W Districts across the nation, works to improve water quality by reducing runoff of sediments, nutrients and chemicals that are not just harmful to humans but also plants and wildlife. In working with other government agencies on this project the district hopes to show how all agencies working together can take such a project site and make it a pilot for what it means going from brown to green.

RN: How will your proposed project make an impact on water and agriculture quality, conservation and/or public education in your community?

PCSWCD: At the headwaters of our project site is an outlet from a housing development retention basin. People living in this residential development are only concerned that as long as their property drains and they don’t have any water problems around their new home everything is fine. Little do some know what’s downstream and what is in the water as it leaves their home sites. The planting of grasses in the bottom of this two-stage ditch will slow the speed of the water traveling, help filter out fertilizers and chemicals used on the lawns of the homeowners, and reduce the sediment that flows from the bare gulley to the road where it accumulates and causes flooding. Buffer strips planted on both sides of the new ditch will reduce the runoff from adjacent agricultural lands from moving downstream also. Taking pictures of before and after will make the public aware what happens and what impact runoff has downstream.

RN: Why should people vote for your organization?

PCSWCD: Porter County Soil and Water is really no different than the other seven candidates entered in the contest. We each view our goals as a means of helping to improve the environment around us. The project the District chose to support does just that. The community will really notice the benefits of this project when a green growing area replaces a barren gulley that carries silted water, chemicals, fertilizers and crop residue downstream and blocks a road culvert under a state highway flooding the road at times when large rain events occur.

RN: Why are local watershed protection projects like yours so important?

PCSWCD: Watershed projects like this one let the public know that local groups and individuals working together can make an impact on a designated area more than just one agency doing it. The District taking the lead and involving other agencies to be part of this watershed gives a sense of accomplishment to everyone that is involved. It makes the public aware of importance of the Soil and Water Districts in their area. To some just having another governmental agency could be a waste of our tax money, but doing and accomplishing goals like this is very important in the public eye and the goals we each set are very important to all.

RN: Thanks for all you are doing to protect and restore Indiana's waterways!

View project summaries from the MillerCoors-River Network Watershed Protection Grant competition and cast your vote today!