The "Soft Tools" offered here are, as an arbitrary distinction, tools that relate to preimplementation or support issues, e.g., data, planning and training.

Watershed protection and restoration are not simple tasks. Whether your interests in your watershed are related to drinking water supply, recreation, esthetics, biodiversity, conservation, community development or any number of other objectives, you are no doubt seeking assistance. Just remember, the issues you are dealing with are issues someone else has probably already thought about. The following links are designed to help you in your quest for resources, technical assistance and contact information for many of the more common watershed issues in Kentucky. 

"Hard Tools,"  on the other hand, relate to "on-the-ground" implementation.  If you need more information, don't hesitate to contact us with suggestions for additional resources.

People and Organizational Tools

• Local Government  This Web site provides information to help local governments develop effective resource protection ordinances. (U. S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA])
  • Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO) is a University of Connecticut educational program for land-use decision makers that addresses the relationship of land use to natural resource protection. (University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension Service)
  • The National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals (NALGEP) is a not-for-profit organization that represents local government personnel responsible for ensuring environmental compliance and developing and implementing environmental policies and programs.  (National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals)
• Community Assistance Kit  The Green Communities program is a five-step planning process that provides tools and information to help communities become more sustainable. (EPA)
• Sustainable Behavior  This site gives information on how to reduce waste and pollution, increase water and energy efficiency and alter transportation patterns.
• Capacity Building Resources  Capacity building means establishing resources needed to fulfill a mission or achieve a goal. EPA recognizes that watershed groups and local governments need a range of tools to effectively manage their local land and water resources.  (EPA)
• Community-Based Watershed Handbook   A new handbook is now available to help accelerate watershed protection programs. This publication is an update to a successful publication released in 1989. The handbook describes innovative approaches developed and conducted by the 28 National Estuary Programs, which are community-based watershed management organizations that restore and protect coastal watersheds.  Topics covered range from starting a program, identifying problems and solutions to plan development and action steps.

Training Opportunities

• EPA Watershed Academy  This Web site offers a variety of self-paced training modules that represent a basic and broad introduction to the watershed management field.  (EPA)
• Water Science for Schools  This site offers information on many aspects of water, along with pictures, data, maps and an interactive center where you can give opinions and test your water knowledge.  (U.S.Geological Survey [USGS])

Watershed Information

• Watershed Information Network  Roadmap to information services for protecting and restoring water resources.  (EPA)
• Best Nonpoint Source Documents  This list highlights some of the best nonpoint source materials that we are aware of for both professionals and the public.  (EPA)

Planning and Design

• Drinking Water Protection
  • Water Management Planning Mapping Tool  This is a GIS Internet Viewer for Kentucky.
  • Source Water Assessment   Water supply and water resources research using Geographic Information Systems.  (EPA)
  • Source Water Protection Recommendations   A table with recommendations for the protection of drinking water supplies.  (Kentucky Division of Water)
• Watershed Planning
  • Putting Together a Watershed Management Plan   The goal of watershed management is to plan and work toward an environmentally and economically healthy watershed that benefits all who have a stake in it.  (Conservation Technology Information Center [CTIC])
  • Local Watershed Planning Guidance    The purpose of this document is to guide the user through the process of gathering information, defining goals and objectives, and developing ideas for solutions to watershed problems. This is not a comprehensive planning guide but will provide a reference to resources and funds that can assist in solving watershed issues and to highlight key questions and issues.  (Kentucky Division of Water)
  • Rapid Watershed Planning  To balance the need for growth while promoting watershed protection, the Center for Watershed Protection has established an innovative approach to planning based on the natural borders that separate watersheds.  (Center for Watershed Protection)
  • Elements of a Well-Designed Watershed Implementation Plan   This site provides a checklist for producing a well-designed plan for a successful watershed implementation project.   (EPA)
  • Required Watershed Planning Elements Under Section 319 Projects  Supplemental Guidelines for the Award of Section 319 Nonpoint Source Grants to States and Territories in FY 2003.  (EPA)
  • Sample watershed action plans:
    • Powhatan Creek  This watershed management plan provides a summary of the findings from the Powhatan Creek.  (Maryland)
    • Santa Fe River  The Santa Fe River is a tributary of the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico.  This is a PDF document.  (New Mexico) 
• Urban Design and Development
  • Ordinance Review Checklist  The Center for Watershed Protection is a nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation that provides local governments, activists and watershed organizations around the country with the technical tools for protecting some of the nation’s most precious natural resources: our streams, lakes and rivers.  (Center for Watershed Protection)
  • Codes and Ordinances Worksheet  The Center for Watershed Protection is a nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation that provides local governments, activists and watershed organizations around the country with the technical tools for protecting some of the nation’s most precious natural resources.  (Center for Watershed Protection)
  • Problems with Current Urban Site Designs  The Center for Watershed Protection is a nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation that provides local governments, activists and watershed organizations around the country with the technical tools for protecting some of the nation’s most precious natural resources.  (Center for Watershed Protection)
  • Tools for Addressing Site Designs  The Center for Watershed Protection is a nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation that provides local governments, activists and watershed organizations around the country with the technical tools for protecting some of the nation’s most precious natural resources.  (Center for Watershed Protection)
  • Low-Impact Development [LID] (EPA)
    • EPA's Low-Impact Development  This site offers many links to LID documents.
    • Low-Impact Development Center  This site provides watershed managers with a new set of tools and techniques that can be used to meet regulatory and receiving water protection program goals for urban retrofits, redevelopment projects and new development sites.
    • Out of the Gutter: Reducing Polluted Runoff in the District of Columbia   Urbanization has dramatically altered the earth’s natural hydrology, and this has resulted in serious problems with stormwater whenever it rains or snows. The process of urbanization begins with construction, which eliminates trees, vegetation and topsoil—key components of the natural hydrologic system that otherwise controls the overflow of precipitation (stormwater runoff). (NRDC) 
• Smart Growth
  • Design to the Rescue  This report explains how states and communities can encourage New Community Design -- mixed-use, mixed-income, walkable development that is distinctly different from sprawl -- by eliminating institutional barriers in the marketplace. (National Governor's Association)
    • Executive Summary  This is an extract from "New Community Design to the Rescue."
    • Smart Growth Checklist   This is an extract from "New Community Design to the Rescue."
  • Smart Growth Network   The Network was formed in response to increasing community concerns about the need for new ways to grow that boost the economy, protect the environment and enhance community vitality.  (Sustainable Committees Network)
  • Policy Guide on Smart Growth   Organization of the policy guide. (American Planning Association)
  • KRS Chapter 100 on Planning and Zoning  Kentucky Revised Statutes.  (Kentucky Legislature)
  • Encouraging Smart Growth  EPA is providing assistance to communities to protect water resources and achieve smart growth.  This report documents 75 innovative approaches that state and local governments and water quality professionals can use to achieve their smart growth and water quality goals.  Approaches include redeveloping abandoned properties, encouraging rooftop gardens, creating shared parking and promoting tree planting. (EPA)

Monitoring and Assessment

• Monitoring Water Quality  Did you ever stop to wonder how we get our information on the condition of our nation's streams, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters?  Or whether these waters are safe enough to swim in, fish from or use for drinking or irrigation purposes?  Monitoring provides this basic information.  (EPA)
• Visual Assessment  This document presents an easy-to-use assessment protocol to evaluate the condition of aquatic ecosystems associated with streams.  (U.S.Department of Agriculture [USDA])
• Interagency Monitoring Workgroup  The Monitoring Subcommittee is a body of representatives from around the state that play a role in natural resource monitoring.  The agencies include local, state and federal agencies and universities.

Watershed Viewer - Links to a clickable basin map. More detailed information is revealed by "zooming" into the map (with the "magnifying glass"). "Identify HUC11" produces links, at the bottom of the map, to a table and narrative information about each subwatershed.

Using Watershed Data

• To learn the condition of your stream or lake, maps and reports are available to answer your questions.  See an online map, 305(b) Water Quality Reports to Congress, 303(d) List of Impaired Streams and other online information sources to learn about the waterway you are interested in.
• Nonpoint Source Priority Watersheds  The NPS Program is responsible for protecting Kentucky's surface and groundwater and restoring impacted waters.
• Online mapping  Watershed Viewer.
• Watershed Watch  A volunteer project associated with the Watershed Initiative. 
• EPA Envirofacts   Your one-stop source for environmental information.  (EPA)
• Integrated Report or 305(b) Water Quality Report to Congress: Use Support Data  The Integrated Report to Congress is a requirement of states as specified in the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 which later came to be know as the Clean Water Act in 1977.  (Kentucky Division of Water)
• 303(d) List of Impaired Waters  Pursuant to Section 303(d) which in 1977 became known as the Clean Water Act, the state of Kentucky has developed a list of waterbodies presently not supporting designated uses as required by 40 CFR 130.7(b)(4) and needing Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) development.  (Kentucky Division of Water)
• USGS Water Data in Kentucky   USGS Water Resources of Kentucky.  (USGS)
• Total Maximum Daily Loads
  • Kentucky A TMDL, or Total Maximum Daily Load, is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a water body can receive and still meet water quality standards.  It is also an allocation of that amount to the pollutant's sources.
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency   TMDL Reports, providing a summary of the TMDL program, are available for EPA regions and the states.

Glossary Terms used within the Watershed Management Framework.

Abbreviations  Acronym and Abbreviation Directory.