$30,000 to Lower Shoal Creek Watershed Committee

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has awarded $30,000 to the Environmental Task Force of Jasper and Newton Counties and the Lower Shoal Creek Watershed Committee. The Harry S. Truman Coordinating Council assisted in securing the grant for the committee. The Joplin Globe, Saturday, March 17, 2007 reports that the grant will be used to develop a survey that, in part, will “gauge perceptions of local water-quality issues and support of various types of local programs aimed at restoring and protecting local waterways,” according to DNR.

The Environmental Task Force of Jasper and Newton Counties formed the Lower Shoal Creek Watershed Committee as a steering committee, last year. The group’s mission statement designates not just the lower part, but the entire Shoal Creek watershed, from its headwaters in Barry County to its confluence with Spring River west of the Missouri-Kansas line near Riverton, KS., as the area to be served by the plan. The goal of the group is to “identify and implement voluntary, common-sense actions that will help to improve and conserve the water quality” of the lower part of the creek and its tributaries.