Commissioner addresses Congress on flooding
Wolf testifies Worland ice jam flood costs could exceed $150,000
March 2, 2017
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Wednesday, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), welcomed testimony from Washakie County Commission Chairman Terry Wolf at a committee oversight hearing on “Flood Control Infrastructure: Safety Questions Raised by Current Events.”
Reading from a prepared statement, Wolf outlined recent flooding issues in the Worland area.
He said, “The high yield of agricultural production is dependent upon the Big Horn River that flows south to north out of Wind River Canyon through our basin. Unfortunately, this same river that brings so much life also brings destruction to our communities in the spring when ice blocks the size of trucks and weighing up to 300,000 pounds jam up and block the flow of the river. The ice jams push the water over the banks and into the communities of Worland, Manderson, Basin, and Greybull, flooding homes and businesses and threatening the sugar processing plant.”
He testified about the February flooding that was due to a sedimentary island in the Big Horn River that causes frequent ice jams, stating in part that “over the course of the week city, county, and state officials, the Wyoming National Guard, and numerous volunteers worked tirelessly to protect public and private property. Critical infrastructure threatened by the flood includes US Highway 20, BNSF railroad, and critical energy and communications infrastructure. We are still evaluating the total costs to our communities in damage and clean-up costs, but estimates of state and local costs will likely exceed $150,000.
“While this flood is heartbreaking by itself, what is important for the Committee to know is that what happened in Worland a couple weeks ago is almost identical to the flooding in 2014. That same island gathered and held ice blocks and pushed the Big Horn River into Worland costing state and local governments nearly $200,000 in recovery costs. For a rural county like Washakie, these costs are difficult to bear.”
Wolf asked the committee to consider using the Army Corps of Engineers to help Worland remove the island, referencing a section of the Water Infrastructure Improvements Act for the Nation, dealing specifically with flooding caused by ice jams.
He testified that following the 2014 flood the city and county pursued the possibility of removing the island. “Initial estimates at the time indicated that removal of about 1.7 acres of area at a depth of at least five feet, requiring about 1,700 truckloads would ensure free-flowing passage of ice blocks. While a project like this is very small for an agency like the Army Corps, it is much too large for a community as small as ours to tackle on our own.
“Removal of the island appears to be the solution to our flooding in Worland, but at the local level we are flexible enough to explore other options if the Army Corps is flexible enough to make use of this new language to research and explore cost effective technologies to mitigate what is likely to be a repeated disaster in our area. We remain concerned about the monetary and human capital costs associated with these projects. However, Washakie County stands ready to work alongside the Army Corps of Engineers on any viable and cost-effective solution for the protection of our community. We hope that Washakie County and the Big Horn River will be among the first of the cold region pilot projects,” stated Wolf.
He concluded his testimony stating, “Seasonal runoff or unique weather events are things over which we have no control, but the floods caused by ice jams and a sediment island in the Big Horn River is something we can control with assistance from the Army Corps of Engineers. I am here to ask for both the Corps and your help to ensure that as you move forward with funding infrastructure projects of great importance to the nation, that you do not forget these small projects in rural areas that are of critical importance to our local communities.”
The hearing also featured testimony from Lieutenant General Todd Semonite, commanding general and chief of engineers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Ron Corbett, Mayor of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Secretary John Laird, deputy secretary for external affairs for the California Natural Resources Agency; and Larry Larson, director emeritus and senior policy advisor for the Association of State Floodplain Managers Inc.
BARRASSO COMMENTS
During his opening remarks of the committee meeting, Barrasso discussed the flooding events in California, the threat of failure of the Oroville Dam and ice jam flooding in northern Wyoming along the Big Horn River in towns like Worland, Manderson and Greybull, as well as towns located to south like Riverton, Lander, Hudson, and areas of the Wind River Reservation.”
Barrasso called on the committee to implement new programs that could assist the communities.
“I included language in Title 1 of the Water Resources Development Act this committee enacted last Congress, creating an Army Corps pilot program to develop innovative and cost savings technology to address the threat of ice jams. The program needs to be implemented. I also would like to note that in the past two WRDA bills this committee provided additional authority to both the Corps and to FEMA to help states, local governments and dam owners address deficient levees and dams. It is time to implement these authorities.”