The Suncook River’s astounding change of course near Epsom’s center beat out a list of other environmental projects for a competitive grant.

A $40,000 project will now determine what’s best for the centuries-old river, which forged through the walls of an old gravel pit during last May’s historic flooding, and has since been cutting new channels before returning to its accustomed course.

A 40 percent local match was needed for the federal grant money, and selectmen earlier this year opted to use $16,000 left over from the town’s 2006 budget.

DES and town officials are now soliciting calls for qualifications from firms able to do a “geomorphic” assessment of the river, and hope to have a grant agreement in place soon so studies on the Suncook can commence this summer, said DES Merrimack Watershed Supervisor Steve Landry.

The assessment, said Landry, will help determine what, if anything, should be done to the river, which has been digging into new channels for 10 months now, and bypassing a mile-long stretch where the river had flowed since the Ice Age.

A goal of the assessment will be to determine how best the river can reach its evolutionary “endpoint,” said Landry.

Whether that’s forcing the river to its former course, shoring up banks downstream of the breach, or leaving the river entirely to its own volition, it’s too early to tell, said Landry.

But, he said, “The assessment phase will probably be the least expensive part.”

Landry said he hopes the assessment can be complete by summer 2008 so town officials would have time, if they’re inclined, to present a warrant article in 2009 to ask voters whether they support working on the Suncook.

“This is going to be a long process,” said Epsom Selectman Joni Kitson.

Landry said if a larger project is recommended after the geomorphic assessment, DES would likely pitch the project to a wide variety of organizations that may be willing to contribute funding.

“There are a lot of foundations and organizations that would be very interesting in working on this project,” he said.

The river’s change has caused problems upriver of the breach, where slow, meandering currents have become a fast-moving trickle, and downstream, where an estimated 150,000 cubic yards of sediment collected from the new channels have been dumped.

The Suncook’s new path also flooded fields and working farms, and put a town well near Epsom Central School out of commission.

Days after the initial breach, which actually caused water to flow upstream as the riverbed near the Old Mill Restaurant and Tavern dried up, Epsom residents at a heavily attended selectmen’s meeting overwhelmingly said, in a show of hands, they’d like to see the Suncook returned to its former course.

Landry reticently speculated that returning the river entirely to its old course may be a difficult prospect since it’s continued to “down cut” in its new channels, reaching continuously lower elevations as it looks for stability.

But Landry said he may be “totally wrong.”

“That’s why we hire the geomorphic experts to answer these questions,” he said.