Upper White River Basin Foundation Inc.

“The initial review of the 990 is performed by the president. After his approval, the return is provided to the board of trustees.”

“Board members annually sign affirmations of compliance with the organization's conflict of interest policies. Interested persons: any director, principal officer, member of a committee with governing board delegated power, or a person with a financial interest. Interested persons must disclose the existence of a possible conflict of interest. Once disclosed, the board reviews the situation and determines if a conflict exists. The board will vote to accept or reject the transaction with the interested person. The interested person is not allowed to vote.”

“Compensation of the organization's president is reviewed using comparative salaries and compensation information and approved by the board of directors.”

“Governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements are made available to the public upon request.”

“The foundation entered into a sub-grant agreement with the arkansas department of agriculture natural resources division to perform and complete a soil and water assessment tool (swat) model for the upper white river watershed in arkansas (huc 11010001). This project began 12/1/2021. The foundation sub-contracted with ftn associates, overseeing and reviewing modeling and reporting activities. The draft final swat model report was reviewed by the foundation and comments sent to ftn associates in december 2023. The project is expected to be completed early 2024. The objective of this project is to apply the swat model for the arkansas portion of the upper white river watershed so that the sub-watersheds (huc12s) that are partially or completely within arkansas can be ranked based on sediment and nutrient loads, which helps prioritize the sub-watersheds to assist in developing nonpoint source (nps) investment strategies that will have the greatest impact on water quality objectives. Model results from this project will be used as part of the watershed management plan development project.”

“On september 9, 2022, the foundation entered into a grant agreement with the arkansas natural resources commission to establish a septic tank remediation program for protection of the buffalo river watershed in arkansas. The foundation is to receive an amount up to 278,400 from the water development fund for the administration of a 1,000,000 construction grant from the clean water state revolving fund for a three-year project period. The program offers financial and technical assistance to homeowners in need of septic repair or replacement within the buffalo river watershed. Funding is a combination of grant and/or zero-interest loan based on household income. Up to 90% of the total project cost may be covered by the grant, which requires zero payback by the homeowner. In 2023, this srf septic remediation project replaced or repaired 8 failing septic systems in the buffalo river watershed totaling 139,481.00 in project costs; of which 125,532.90 were grants to homeowners, and 13,948.10 were 0% interest loans to homeowners. The foundation entered into an agreement with beaver water district to conduct preliminary research on the impact of septic systems on water quality in streams across the beaver lake watershed. This project includes geospatial analysis and water quality sampling. The goal is to collect data that can relate septic system density, proximity to streams, and other metrics to water quality indicators. This project can inform future policy decisions related to the maintenance and functioning of septic systems. This project period is from october 2022 through september 2023. This project generated data showing that septic density results in higher concentrations of water quality parameters, although statistical significance was somewhat limited due to low sample size. Beginning in october 2023, through another agreement with beaver water district, the foundation initiated more robust research, adding over twice as many sampling sites, to generate reliable science driven data related to the impact of septic systems on water quality. This follow up project is set to be completed in fall 2024. The foundation entered into a subgrant agreement with the arkansas department of agriculture natural resources division through a section 319 grant from the u.s. Environmental protection agency to develop and prepare an epa-accepted nine-element watershed-based plan for the upper white river basin, a huc-8 (11010001) priority watershed in arkansas. The foundation sub-contracted with ftn associates toward the development of the watershed-based plan. Part of this project is to engage stakeholders and generate local support for the plan and its implementation. The overall goal is to prioritize subwatersheds, identify projects to reduce pollutants, and help ensure that waterways meet their designated uses. The project began on october 1, 2022. During 2023, the foundation hosted four stakeholder workshops toward the development of the written 9-element plan. The final plan and report is set to be completed in fall 2024. In 2021 the foundation entered into a subgrant agreement with ozarks environmental and water resources institute (oweri) to develop a watershed management plan for lake taneycomo watershed. The foundation formed and facilitates an advisory committee to share information and input to guide the watershed management planning, nonpoint source pollution modeling, and demonstration project for lake taneycomo - white river watershed writing process. The foundation facilitates stakeholder meetings that include, but is not limited to, the foundation staff, oweri staff, missouri department of conservation staff, officials and/or staff from all cities along lake taneycomo, dam operators, and other community leader and members. The goal of this project is to develop a 9-element watershed-based plan for the lake taneycomo-white river watershed. The foundation will keep local stakeholders informed of the plan writing process and ga”