Submitted Electronically via eRulemaking Portal

The Perry County Soil and Water Conservation District Board is a strong advocate of conservation practices in all areas of the community. Soil conservation and water quality are the main objectives, but wildlife and other natural resources are also very important to this board. The soils of the county are very productive but also have a very high potential for erosion. The agricultural production is a significant portion of the community economy. The Federal Register proposed rule “Endangered Status for Grotto Sculpin and Designation of Critical Habitat” expresses concern over the agricultural practices and specifically the vertical drains used to improve sinkholes. While the NRCS guide on construction contains language that also covers injection wells, the vertical drain differs in that it is designed to carry the same total flow of drainage water as the sinkhole did before the drain is installed, but pipe size is designed to restricted flow to allow some stilling of the water and settling of sediment, other solids and any contaminates attached to those solids. The sinkholes with the vertical drains place surface drainage at exact the same location and do not cause a rise in the watertable any more than the sinkholes did before the vertical drains. All landowners that install new vertical drains must have any existing vertical drains in good repair. District employees do an annual spot check on other landowners. The spot check requirement is 10 to 15% of all cost shared vertical drains, up from previous policy of 3 to 5% spot checks. The vertical drains stabilize the soils around the rim of the sinkhole and reduce the gully erosion that we want to reduce. The vertical drains are always a part of a bigger conservation plan. Last year the district set policies to check maintenance of the filter strip and vertical drains. The published rule states that there can be as many as 7 vertical drains installed per square mile. With an average density of mo