SERVICES:

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

Wetlands Delineation & Permitting

Project Funding Support

Pickering is providing project management, natural resources and water resources services to the Pat Harrison Waterway District (PHWD) and the George County, MS Board of Supervisors for the Pascagoula River Drought Resiliency Project. This is an ongoing, long-term project which initiated in June 2010.

Work through October 2020 included project scoping meetings, field work, and extensive data collection and analysis to determine long-term regional water demand, as well as to project the long-term impacts of climate change and variability on drought frequency, severity and duration on the Lower Pascagoula River. A “pre-application” was submitted in response to the Environmental Protection Agency, Region 4’s Guidelines on Water Efficiency Measures for Water Supply Projects in the Southeast, which was issued on June 21, 2010. More recently, continued research and data collection regarding wetland mitigation, recreational possibilities, and Purpose and Need are ongoing. The project in currently in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) phase, with a third-party consultant conducting independent research to determine overall environmental impacts.

Mississippi State University collected and analyzed geo-hydrologic field data including measuring tributary stream flow and identifying, quantifying flow and mapping springs in selected tributary watersheds. In addition, Mississippi’s State Climatologist located at MSU led a detailed regional climate change/variability study of the project area to project the frequency, severity and duration of future droughts. Further, Pickering conducted the additional studies related to regional surface and groundwater supplies, the Lower Pascagoula River’s instream flow regulations and prepared a water budget for the multi-county project area. Pickering Firm, Inc. is preparing a Clean Water Act § 404 Joint Wetlands Permit Application and Environmental Assessment for submission to the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District in mid-2015. In 2019, Pickering provided a technical memorandum to the George County Supervisors and PHWD for the proposed compensatory wetland mitigation plan. This memorandum is currently under review.