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- County has short deadline to mitigate flood damage
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By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Is it possible to complete five flood mitigation projects in just 10 days beginning on Monday, September 15?
"I think we are in good shape and that we can do it," said Byron Woodland, Juab County Commissioner.
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), part of the United States Department of Agriculture, has agreed to assist with the rehabilitation effort of the Levan fire area, said Woodland.
"We just received word that they have awarded us $200,000 for the five different projects but the clock has started ticking," said Woodland. "The county agreed to be a sponsor of the rehabilitation in order to obtain the funding."
Juab County will be required to put up a 25 percent match.
The county's match would come to approximately $67,000. Most of the match funding will be covered by DWR. The balance can come in the form of in-kind money through the use of county equipment and man hours and will not require the expenditure of county funds.
The five projects consist of the construction of diversion dams, sediment basins and sediment piles.
The two sediment piles, constructed from tons of rock, will be placed at the base of two canyons.
"There will be six basins," said Woodland.
He said that the projects must be engineered and completed within the 10-day period because the money is granted on an exigency basis. The need for funding to help with emergency projects must be spent in the short time allotted, otherwise, the NRCS will consider that the projects were not that pressing.
More funding may be available from NRCS if more is needed. If the county reapplies for more help, they may receive up to $400,000.
Woodland said there was a 50 percent chance that the county could reapply and receive the extra money.
To date, the county has already completed some work. They have built some drive-throughs and have done some work on Powell Lane.
"The projects proposed will not eliminate all the flooding but it will help," he said.
The Department of Wildlife Resources has obligated $130,000 and the projects are underway.
One project, suggested by landowners, to funnel flood water into an old stream area on Powell Lane will not accomplish the needed relief from flood water that it was hoped it might do.
"The hydrologist said that it would take a waterway 6-feet wide and 55-feet deep in order to handle the flood water from the north and the south if it were channeled that way," said Woodland.
That would only handle the type of storm the area recently experienced which caused the uncontrolled flooding of the ranches in the area. Powell Lane is on the west side of the fire and has been hard hit by flooding that has come to the area since so the vegetation which held it back has been destroyed by fire.
Seeding has already been taking place with airdrops of 1,200 to 1,400 pounds of seeds per trip. Planning and base funding for wildfire reseeding projects in Utah come from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources' Watershed Restoration Initiative.
The seed batch consists of 17 species and 27 varieties and is specifically mixed by state wildlife biologists to provide wildlife habitat through restoration in the burned areas, but also to provide erosion control and possibly prevent future wildfires.
The seeding needs to take place soon after a fire in order to keep down Cheatgrass, that easily recovers after a fire overtakes native species.
Sagebrush is part of the seeding and is critical to re-establish mule deer habitat.
"These projects are designed to diminish the impact of the flooding on the farms in the area where there has been extensive damage," said Woodland.
Woodland has been working to get some help for those ranchers of Levan who were hard hit by recent floods stemming from the burn scar of a wildland fire that started on July 24 and burned 4,343 acres before being contained on August 8.
Torrential rain came on July 29, just a few days after the fire started, and was responsible for a mudslide that caused damage to yards and farmland. A river of water and debris ran across 12 miles of highway closing it to through traffic.
That flood also damaged ranchland and rich farmland belonging to Bateman's Dairy, Kenison Farms, Dave Shepherd and others, as well as threatening homes in its wake.
"The Forest Service has applied for $1.3 million to fund seeding and mulching," said Woodland.
Those funds will be in addition to the money that came to the county through NRCS.
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