The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly adopted a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a joint funding agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey to cooperatively maintain the stream river gages and gaging stations.
KPB Mayor Charlie Pierce said:
“There’s a cost in this joint agreement of $151,563, which is jointly shared by the Borough and the USGS. We’ve had a longstanding agreement with USGS to provide this support and they go out and do the work. They provide the gages. They collect the data. They deliver the data, share it with us and we just share in the cost of running the program and that’s what this request is for.”
The stage-only gaging station located on the Anchor River near Anchor Point and the continuous record stream gaging stations located on Grouse Creek near Seward, the Snow River near Seward, the Kenai River at Cooper Landing, and the Kenai River below Skilak Lake outlet near Sterling provide important hydrological data collected for flood warning and flood forecasting purposes on the Kenai Peninsula. The gages have been jointly used by the Kenai Peninsula Borough and the U.S. Geological Survey for several years under a Joint Funding Agreement.
The USGS will operate and maintain the stream gage; maintain data at the site; record stage data every 15 minutes; make discharge measurements during visits to maintain the state-discharge rating curve and to define the winter hydrograph; post near real-time stage and discharge data and publish finalized data to the same site; and store the data in the USGS databases.
The Borough enters into the Joint Funding Agreement to assist in minimizing flood damage by providing early warning of impending flood hazards to property owners in low-lying areas. The Kenai Peninsula Borough would pay $76,563 and the USGS would pay $75,000. The proposed Joint Funding Agreement is for a one-year period from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023.
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