SWAN QUARTER — Hyde County was recently awarded a $15,000 grant from the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management to go toward the Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan.

The money was dispersed as part of a $100,000 grant that was divided between seven locations in eastern North Carolina, including Currituck County, Elizabeth City, Carolina Shores, Caswell Beach, Pender County, Swansboro and Hyde County, according to a press release from Gov. Roy Cooper’s office.

“These grants will help coastal North Carolina alleviate flooding after hurricanes and big storms, plan for future growth and improve water quality,” Cooper stated in the release. “Recovering from Hurricane Matthew has shown us just how critical it is for local communities to prepare proactively for future disasters, and this state and local partnership does just that.”

Hyde County Assistant Manager Kris Cahoon Noble submitted the grant application a couple of months ago to help fund the county’s ongoing watershed restoration project, a nine-element outline to promote water quality in Lake Mattamuskeet.

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have committed another $30,000 each to the project. Hyde County agreed to secure $20,000 of the $80,000 price tag, including an in-kind grant match of at least $5,000 in the form of staff time, travel and other expenditures.

The restoration plan is a response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s designation of Lake Mattamuskeet as an “impaired water body,” meaning the water is too polluted for its intended use.

USFWS officials attribute this pollution to agricultural runoff and waterfowl waste, which led to an influx of phytoplankton and sediments, causing the decline of submerged aquatic vegetation, according to a NCWRC report. Tropical storms and hurricanes exacerbate the situation.

“We want to design a voluntary blueprint that helps our county’s residents and landowners take care of the lake watershed and their properties for decades to come,” Hyde County Manager Bill Rich stated in a release presented to the Board of Commissioners. “We will identify and then work to carry out cost-effective steps to restore water quality in the lake and at the same time, reduce flooding problems in the watershed.”

Project stakeholders will hold the first of six public meetings on the watershed on Aug. 8, at the Hyde County Government Building in Swan Quarter. The public is invited to attend and share solutions for correcting the watershed plan and Mattamuskeet’s water quality.

Subsequent meetings will be held: Oct. 3, Jan. 16, 2018, April 24, 2018, June 19, 2018, and Sept. 18, 2018.

Rich said the plan is to present a final draft in October 2018.