Blanchard River Watershed Study Still No. 1 Priority

The Blanchard River Watershed Study remains the No. 1 priority project for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Buffalo District.

“This study has taken an unrelenting effort to get to this point. On the Federal side, the authorities, policies, and funding amounts under which we have conducted the study have varied through the years,” said Karl D. Jansen, P.E. Lieutenant Colonel, Corps of Engineers, District Commander.

“What is important to know now, is that funding secured through the efforts of local, state, and federal leaders in April set the project study on a path for planned completion in March 2016.”

In the coming weeks, USACE Buffalo and the project’s local sponsor are set to brief the study’s progress to leaders of the USACE Headquarters. This process is known as the Tentatively Selected Plan (TSP) Milestone.

The significance of this milestone is that all of the work that has been conducted in the past has resulted in a basic plan that will offer flood risk reduction, where the benefits are greater than the costs of the project.

This basic plan calls for three general measures: a diversion channel that collects water from Eagle Creek and moves it back into the Blanchard River downstream from Findlay; a levee that runs south from the reservoir to Highway 15 that prevents water from jumping the banks of the Blanchard River and flowing overland towards Lye Creek; and finally, non-structural measures that may include raising structures or buying out landowners in high risk areas.

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September 13, 2014