Army Corps approves Milk River Levee plan

The Hill County Commission met Wednesday with representatives from Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and Great Western Engineering. to discuss progress on the Havre-Milk River Levee's improvement project, including federal approval of the improvement plan proposed for the levee, delaying a potential downgrade on the system.

The levee, which was completed in 1957, was designed to prevent destructive flooding that often devastated the area.

However, after inspections in 2014 and 2015, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the levee did not meet their standards. Problems with the levee include structures being built too close or against the levee and trees growing on it.

If the levee isn't certified by the Corps, people determined to be in a floodplain may be required to buy flood insurance.

During Wednesday's meeting Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said the county's System-Wide Improvement Framework has been approved by the Corps and they have been instructed to begin implementation immediately.

The SWIF plan is intended to address deficiencies in the levee found during the Corps inspections.

During the implementation of the plan the county will be have reporting and re-approval requirements, but the Corps has yet to determine those requirements.

Peterson said the bulk of work would not start in earnest until proper funding can be obtained to do that, as the county's recent application for an Economic Developement Administration grant was unsuccessful.

Peterson said the EDA program ran out of money before the application made it to the proverbial top of the pile.

"We might be in the 2021 year before we really get started on anything," he said.

He said the county is in talks with Great Western Engineering about finding more funding opportunities.

The initial stage of work laid out in the SWIF document includes levee right-of-way retracement, culvert Inspections and the repairing of storm drain gates.

Montana DNRC Outreach Specialist Nadene Wadsworth said that process can be frustratingly slow on the county side and praised the commission for the SWIF document's completion.

"I know that it has been a long process and that you guys have put a lot of time and effort into it," she said.

She said the road to getting the levee certified is long and potentially expensive.

"Certification of a levee is no small task," she said, "There are several requirements that (Federal Emergency Management Agency) will want to see in order to have the maps reflect that the levee can withstand that 1 percent annual chance flood."

Wadsworth provided a six-page checklist to the commission from FEMA detailing what would be needed for the levee to receive their certification.

"That kind of effort is going to be a huge list from just the county alone, and they're going to need a lot of support from the community," she said, "That is because if the levees are not certified then new maps could show that more of the community is in the floodplain, and they would have to buy flood insurance."

She said, for the time being, the county and City of Havre have maps that reflect the levee as being certified.

In an interview after the meeting, Peterson said the county hasn't received a lot of help on the levee from FEMA in the last few years, and that it's refreshing to see a checklist.

Wadsworth also detailed a 2014 memorandum of understanding between FEMA and the Corps that says both agencies will combine their processes to reduce redundancies.

She said the Corps will identify whether the system meets FEMA requirements for certification during inspections and they will report information to FEMA from now on.

Peterson said this is a step in the right direction, but Hill County Commissioner Mike Wendland said this kind of thing would have been helpful earlier in the process.

"This could have been a long way down the road if FEMA and the Corps of Engineers had the same set of rules as we were going along on this years ago," he said.

Wadsworth also pointed out a rule that the county must follow during the improvement process.

She said levee owners must worked with a licensed engineer or federal agency that is responsible for the design and development to certify documentation that a levee meets the design construction standards for the 1 percent annual chance flood.

Because the Corps built the levee, Wadsworth said, she asked the Corps in a meeting last March what a community would have to do to get support from their agency to get the levee certified.

She said the Corps can perform risk assessments that can satisfy part of the certification requirements especially the expensive ones and provide support at a 50/50 cost share with communities in that situation.

She said the Corps would perform a comprehensive inspection, create a scope of work and a cost estimate, and the county wouldn't be committed to the cost share until the cost estimate had been found.

Wadsworth also said federal money couldn't be used to satisfy that cost share, but she said, there are some grant programs out there that lose their federal identity when obtained.

Craig Erickson of Great Western Engineering said he sensed some reluctance from people at the Montana Department of Commerce about using Community Development Block Grants for this project, which Wadsworth said, could be used toward the 50 percent match, but he wants to revisit the possibility with them.

Wadsworth said not many communities know about the possibility of to 50 percent match, and some of the guidance about it is new, so it hasn't been taken advantage yet.

"I figured, let's have Montana be the first, let's give it a shot," she said.

She said whatever the county decides to do, they should begin working through their SWIF plan as soon as possible and address the deficiencies in the levee, which she said, would almost certainly prevent the levee being re-certified, as well as update their operation and maintenance plan, or create one if need be and work on an emergency action plan for levee failure.

She said they should also survey the levee's exact dimensions and gather all the data they have on the levee including historical information, designs, past inspections, etc. as well as put in the request for the Corps initial inspection as soon as possible.

"The Corps has the best of intentions, but they are not a fast-moving agency so it could take some time," she said.

Wadsworth also detailed her agency's upcoming Floodplain Mapping Project, which she said, might take seven to 10 years to produce regulatory flood insurance maps for Hill County.

"This project is going to take some time, with the understanding that things can slow down the project or even delay it," she said.

She said floodplain mapping project recently received a grant from FEMA for Phase 1 of its operation.

Wadsworth said this phase would mostly involve data gathering, and some engineering and floodplain modeling for the Milk River Watershed which runs through Hill and many of the surrounding counties.

She said the project will first be working on the tributaries for now.

She said hydrology information has been given to DNRC in the fall and structure survey data has been collected and is being worked on by Great West.

Phase 2 of the project, Wadsworth said, is anticipated to receive a grant in spring 2021.

She said members of the public can go to http://www.floodplain.mt.gov/milk, for information and updates on the project.

Erickson said he was thinking about the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Program, which he said has 446 million dollars available to all fifty states, for funding, but he said it might be very difficult the levee project to get ahold of any of it.

"It's going to be hyper-competitive," he said.

Peterson said funding will be a huge issue going forward, but the meeting was encouraging.

"When we started on this project it was pretty overwhelming, still is, but at least we're finding possible funding sources, and that's a huge thing for Hill County," he said.

Wadsworth requested that that she and the commission set up informal meetings on the second Tuesday of every month to discuss updates and support, and the commission agreed to hold them at 1:30 p.m.

In an interview after the meeting Peterson said the idea of this 50/50 cost share with the Corps was one that the commission would be seriously considering.

He said the county would be looking into a number of funding sources including potentially expanding the levee district based on a new breach study of the levee that he said would provide data that could inform such a decision.

However, Peterson said, the prospect of expanding the district is potentially problematic for people in areas also within the area of the Bullhook Levee who may end up getting double taxed.

Peterson lamented the fact that the county's application for an EDA grant didn't have the chance to be accepted or rejected, but he said that may provide an advantage when applying for future grants as it demonstrates a significant need.

He also praised the group on the call and said he was pleased that FEMA has recently became so much better to work with despite past troubles.

"It takes patience, it's easy to get frustrated, but you swallow hard, and keep chugging, keep talking," he said.

Peterson said this project remains a daunting one, especially on the funding side, but this meeting and the approval of the SWIF plan is a significant positive milestone.

He said there will likely be many public meetings in the near future to discuss this and especially urged people in the downtown area especially to come to those meetings to share their concerns and hear updates about the project from the commission. Though he did say that COVID-19 might complicate the matter somewhat.

"We need those people to turn out and talk to us," he said.