MOBILE, Alabama – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Mobile District and the City of Atlanta have completed and approved the Recommended Plan of a three-year, joint-funded feasibility study for aquatic ecosystem restoration in the Proctor Creek watershed. The Proctor Creek Watershed is located within the City of Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia. The creek flows in a northwesterly direction originating in downtown Atlanta and terminating in the Chattahoochee River, covering approximately 16 square miles and nearby to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, which is visited by more than three million people each year.
“The Corps is excited to partner with the City of Atlanta on this project, and appreciates the level of positive contributions made by all our federal colleagues at the Urban Waters Federal Partnership,” said Brig. Gen. Diana Holland, commander, USACE South Atlantic Division, of the approval of the joint-funded feasibility study for Proctor Creek. “As an organization that Builds Strong, the Corps takes pride in our joint effort to help restore an urban channel that will make a positive impact on the surrounding communities of Atlanta's west side."
The Recommended Plan includes restoration of sections of lower and middle Proctor Creek and portions on the Terrell Creek Tributary and the Grove Park Tributary using a variety of engineering techniques adaptive to the water and surrounding ground conditions. And to complete the Proctor Creek watershed project, USACE is moving forward with initiating a Project Partnership Agreement with the City of Atlanta. When the agreement is signed, both parties will then submit funding requests to complete design and construction of the project under a federal/non-federal cost share arrangement.
As a designated Urban Waters Watershed, 14 federal agencies including EPA, USGS, FEMA, DOI, USDA, USACE and others, were already working on natural resources and economic development in the Proctor Creek watershed. Coordination with our agency partners and stakeholders yielded a more complete understanding of problems and opportunities in the watershed from diverse perspectives. Thus the Recommended Plan for Proctor Creek includes not only a tightly coupled green and gray infrastructure that minimizes taxpayer liabilities and optimizes the monetary value captured by renewal investments, but also an ecosystem restoration plan and an Integrated Water Resources Plan that can serve to protect the historic and cultural fabric of the surrounding communities as well acting as the springboard for a revitalized landscape reconnecting those communities back to the creek.
Release no. 18-049