Upper Lamoille River Watershed
The Upper Lamoille is the only watershed in Caledonia County that flows west to Lake Champlain. The Lamoille headwaters are located in the town of Greensboro. The portion of Caledonia County in the Lamoille Watershed includes the town of Hardwick and parts of Wheelock, Stannard, and Walden. The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation maintains the Lamoille River Tactical Basin Plan. The plan is an assessment of the health of the watershed and includes over 140 targeted actions and over 1000 individual related projects.
Click here for the Lamoille River Watershed Tactical Basin Plan
What’s happening in the Watershed?
This drainage channel along Rte 14 south of Hardwick is a combination of a stream and an outlet for a residential stormwater system. It was identified as eroding and a source of sediment and pollution to Cooper Brook that was difficult for the town to maintain.
The Conservation District planned a project that stabilized the area, created a more natural stream channel design, and included a basin upstream for sediment to be collected before it enters the channel and stream.
Ocassionally a stormwater pipe outlet to a river doesn’t work properly. During storm events, floodwater from the river can backfill a pipe resulting in water bubbling up from a catch basin and flooding a street. This can impact water quality by picking up pollutants from the street and draining back to the river. This handy checkvalve, called a duckbill checkvalve, prevents river water from backing up into the stormwater system. A small water quality project and easy fix!
Caledonia County NRCD has been coordinating many culvert replacement projects in the Upper Lamoille. These projects are focused on replacing culverts that are undersized, not passing fish, and have erosion concerns. Over the last 10 years, the Conservation and its partners have replaced three structures in the Upper Lamoille and will continue to develop more projects.
