Lake Mattamuskeet restoration plan begins this summer

Hyde County and East Carolina University contracted the North Carolina Coastal Federation recently to advance community engagement and implementation of the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan.

This restoration plan outlines steps that need to be taken to maintain the way of life within the county and improve water management and water quality in the lake’s watershed.

Since the plan’s approval, the project partners worked diligently to secure funds to implement several of the priority actions, and their efforts have paid off.

Through grants secured from the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund and the National Science Foundation, several priority actions from the plan will move ahead starting this summer.

Engineering services, provided by Geosyntec Consultants and Coastal Protection Engineering, will advance the priority actions identified within the plan.

The top three priority actions include: developing a watershed-scale model to better understand where and how much water currently moves through the watershed, identifying a proposed service district boundary that would outline the limits of future water management efforts, and drafting engineered designs to manage water within the watershed. 

The staff at Geosyntec and Coastal Protection Engineering will assist students in East Carolina University’s Department of Engineering who are working on their senior capstone project.

The engineers will act as a sounding board and mentor for the seniors as they explore possible engineered solutions for the lake’s watershed.