Jefferson County - East-West Gateway Coordinating Council

A Regional Overview All-Hazard Mitigation Plan
broad range of issues including: land use, site-specific development guidelines, flooding,
and water quality. Funding for the project comes from a Federal Water Quality
Management (604b) grant funded by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
The project began in early 1998. Throughout 1998-99, work was focused on the
development of the technical aspects of the plan, including creation of a natural resource
database to be used in the Geographic Information System (GIS), surveying and field work
to establish cross sections of Rock Creek, and aerial mapping to develop 2-foot contour
information for the watershed. This technical phase of the plan will culminate in the
creation of an integrated GIS querying tool, running of computer models to simulate
different storm events to analyze their impacts throughout the watershed, and a reevaluation
of the 100-year floodplain. Subsequent to the technical elements in place in
early 2000, the community involvement phase began. This occurred through several public
meetings in which residents of the watershed were asked to help set priorities for land use
and development guidelines based on the technical information presented by the staff.
Wetlands Issues
The Sierra Club has provided wetlands comments on various projects within Jefferson
County. Included in these comments were concerns about the loss of habitat over 14 miles
of new four-lane highway through rural farms, forests and streams associated with the
Highway 21 project in Jefferson County.
The United States Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District, issues Nationwide Permits for
wetlands in their jurisdiction within Jefferson County. In accordance with the St. Louis
District, and District-Designated Waters: for any discharge or excavation activity requiring
authorization, proposed under NWPs 39, 41, 42 and 43, in any ephemeral, intermittent,
and perennial streams in the following Missouri watersheds, the permittee must notify the
District Engineer in accordance with the "Notification" general condition 13 (Federal
Register, 67 FR 2090-2092). This pertains to the following watersheds in Jefferson County:
Saline/Sugar/Romaine Creeks, Rock Creek, Dulin/Bourne/Heads/Bear Creeks, La Barque
Creek, Glaize Creek, and Joachim/Sandy Creeks.
National Flood Insurance (NFIP) Participation
The National Flood Insurance Policy member number for Jefferson County is 290808.
Environmental Concerns
The recently completed “Jefferson County Wastewater Management Report” identifies
septic system failure, including soil types within portions of the county that are not
conducive for on-site wastewater treatment systems and their leaching fields as a concern
in the county. Through the growth and development of strategies identified in the Master
Plan, many of the on-site wastewater treatment system problems can be remedied by the
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