A project to enhance water storage at wetlands south of Marshall came before Lyon County Commissioners this week. On Tuesday, commissioners approved the use of about $10,500 in riparian aid for work on a series of ponds on land owned by Greg Taylor.

Lyon County Soil and Water Conservation District administrator John Biren said he was asking for commissioners’ approval to use buffer riparian aid toward the project. The aid would be $10,500, or up to 75% of the cost share, whichever amount was less.

“I know the board has expressed a desire to do (water) storage projects with that money, and I think that this would be a good one,” he said.

Biren said the request for aid would go toward wetland enhancements on Taylor’s property.

“The piece of property that we’re dealing with has been restored to its natural habitat, with the exception of adding a fair amount of water storage,” Biren said. He said the wetlands catch and slowly release water from a couple hundred acres of land upstream of Taylor’s property. “The outlet of this is eventually County Ditch 56, which dumps into Lake Marshall in the Cottonwood River watershed.”

“Over the years, we developed all these ponds,” with the help of dams, Taylor said. Taylor said he has also been working to try and reduce the amount of algae in the water on his property. The project would not only allow more water storage, he said, “But now we’ll have a lot more rushes and grass to filter the water through.”

Biren outlined the new proposed work on the wetlands. The project included cutting a grass swale from a pond where water enters the property, to a series of ponds to the northeast. The proposal would also include some excavation of the ponds, ranging between 2 and 5 feet.

“The deeper we go, the more (water) storage,” Biren said. However, excavating more would also increase the cost of the project.

“It’s a little over 200 acres of watershed we’re protecting, and between 20-25 acre-feet of storage,” Biren said.

Biren said Taylor was working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help pay for the wetland restoration.

“The estimates that he’s been receiving are about a 50% cost share,” Biren said. His recommendation was for the county to assist with either $10,500 in riparian aid, or up to 75% of the cost share.

Biren and Commissioner Gary Crowley said the Lyon County Soil and Water Conservation District had helped Taylor in the past, with an earlier project to enlarge and clean the sediment out of the first pond on the property.

Commissioners voted to approve the proposed buffer aid for the new project.