STATE MAY STUDY HUBBLE EROSION

JACKSON -- The state could soon be studying how to slow erosion in the Hubble Creek watershed.

Representatives of the Missouri Natural Resources Conservation Service will meet next month with the Cape Girardeau County Commission to discuss whether such a study should be done, what it should entail and what the possible recommendations might be.

Farmers and others along the Hubble and Williams creeks are losing land to erosion. If the erosion isn't contained, it could eventually damage other facilities.

"Hubble Creek is just degrading back up the channel, and most of the damage is on private land," said Dave Owen, district conservationist with the NRCS's Jackson office. "Eventually highway bridges and railroad tracks may be involved."

When Hubble Creek was channeled several years ago to improve drainage to the Mississippi River and help control flooding, there was a trade-off, Owen said. The wider the channel got, the deeper the creeks became, contributing to the erosion.

"That started the instability, and it's just going up the system," he said.

Development at the north end of the watershed in Jackson and Fruitland means more water is running off into the channel and adding to the problem at the south end of the county.

"That water needs to go someplace. It's either going to flood or go through the channel faster when there's that much of it," he said.

In May, county officials took representatives of the NRCS and other state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, for a tour of the area to show them the damage.

It was after that tour that NRCS representatives agreed a study should at least be discussed, said Mike Wells, assistant state conservationist in the NRCS's Columbia office.

"There hasn't been anything definite decided yet," he added.

NRCS staff recently visited the area and turned in a site report, Wells said. Before meeting with commissioners Aug. 22, the staff will go back and re-survey the area to get a better idea of the extent of the damage.

"What we'd be looking at is developing a watershed plan, looking at the entire stream system," he said.

If county commissioners agree to the study, solutions could include such things as rock dams, using rock or slabs to stabilize eroded areas, or re-grading some areas.

"One of the first things we would do would be to do a survey of the channel, to find out how much grade is in it, how much overflow there is and where it's going," Wells said.

Until the study is done, he added, he can't hypothesize what the solution might be or how much it might cost. It will also depend on whether or not commissioners decide to accept any recommendations made in the study.

"So much depends on where you are and what was done and what the land use is and what the soils are," Wells said.

After a creek has been channeled or straightened and deepened to allow for better and faster drainage, it's not uncommon for the stream to try to "re-meander, to try and put some curves back in the channel," he said.

The Hubble Creek problem is "kind of a unique situation," Wells said, because of the combination of hilly terrain, erosive soils, the channeling of the creek and its proximity to the Mississippi River.

"The program is good and bad," said Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones. Channeling the creek eliminated the flooding problem but created an erosion problem. Now county commissioners have to try to find a balance between the two.

Erosion problems caused Route AA to be rerouted several years ago and a new bridge built, he said. It also damaged a waterline in the Gordonville area.

"Now we're going to see what can be done about it," Jones said.

But depending on whether the study is done and what it recommends, there won't be a solution soon, he added. Funding will have to be found, and red tape followed with several state and federal agencies before any major intervention can occur.

The meeting next month "is just a first step to see what can be done, what kind of recommendations they may come up with," he said.

In the meantime, he said, the county has inherited a problem caused by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' channeling project.

"It's not our responsibility," Jones aid. "But it's got to fall someplace, so who's lap is it going to fall into?"