Final stage of Paxton Berm project nears completion

WORLAND - A project that has been two years in the making since ice jam and runoff flooding eroded the Paxton Berm in 2017 is nearing completion.

Washakie County Conservation District Executive Director Victoria Dietz said the berm work is completed and the only portion left is removal of some Russian olive and salt cedar on the other side of the bank on Wyoming Sugar property. That project, she said, is expected to be completed this month. Russ Linneman of Great Divide Forestry in Worland has the contract on the project.

Why remove the noxious weeds? Dietz said engineers feel the damage to the berm was two fold, erosion from the flooding events but the Russian olives and tamarisk/salt cedar were pushing the water across the river causing erosion, which is one of the reasons the damage was so extensive.

Great Divide Forestry is treating them with mechanical (cutting down) and chemical treatment. Washakie County Weed and Pest is working with the company regarding the chemical treatment. Dietz said if everything is done correctly only about 10 percent of the plants will come back.

Regarding that part of the project, Dietz said Wyoming Sugar had agreed to be responsible for the maintenance and keeping the noxious weeds down. There is about 4.25 acres that will be covered in that project with the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) being responsible to certify the work.

BERM WORK

Nowood Construction of Ten Sleep began work on the Paxton Berm project Monday, Aug. 12. The project started two years ago after two flood events in 2017 that created damage to the Paxton Berm on the north side of the Big Horn River, south of U.S. Highway 20 - the ice jam flooding in February and then the high river levels due to snowmelt runoff in July when snowpack was 200 to 300 percent above average.

The project was made possible in part due to several partnerships and a federal grant. The Washakie County Conservation District (WCCD) is the lead agency on the Paxton Berm project to repair the berm along the Big Horn River behind Big Horn Co-op and Paxton Automotive. Dietz said that in August of 2017, then Washakie County Emergency Management/ Homeland Security Director Jeff Schweighart alerted the district about cracks in the berm. Through funding from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Emergency Watershed Protection Program, the Washakie County Conservation District was able to help the City of Worland cover an exposed sewer line in the river, due to the same flood events. They again looked to the NRCS for funding to help shore up the berm.

The application, which required congressional approval, was made in August 2017 and in October 2017, Dietz wrote a letter to the Wyoming congressional delegation outlining the project. Dietz wrote that, "Due to the volume of the high water releases from Boysen Reservoir, and the extended time in which the released volume and flows remained high, the banks on the Big Horn River became saturated, causing them to not only scour, but to also slough off.

"The Paxton Berm, located along the Big Horn River in Worland, has received extensive damage. Presently the destabilized berm continues to slough, and the fear is that a reoccurring ice jam ... or a repeat of last year's flooding, will cause the berm to fail and extensive flooding will occur."

The berm provides flood protection for five businesses -Big Horn Redi-Mix, Paxton Automotive and Big Horn Cooperatives' farm and ranch, tire and gas station/convenience stores. The damage ran about 1,200 feet along the berm, Dietz said.

The WCCD was notified they received funding, a 75-25 matching grant, in April 2018. The match came in the way of the Wyoming Department of Transportation allowing use of rock from rock falls in the Wind River Canyon.

Dietz said Big Horn Cooperative postponed moving their tire shop across the highway in order to store the rock until the project could be completed. Dietz said they used 5,737 tons of rock on the project. The rock was valued at $341,616.

Total cost of the project was $977,924, including the Russian olive and tamarisk treatment.

She said the match had to be paid by the landowners and without the donation from WYDOT they would have been unable to afford it and the project likely would not have been completed.

The old berm, constructed in the 1960s, according to Dietz's research, used old car body parts among other material.

Other partners in the project, Dietz said, were Washakie County with Commissioner Fred Frandson working as a liaison with the district and the Bureau of Reclamation. The county requested a decrease in flows from Boysen Reservoir, much like was requested when the sediment bar near Riverside Rotary Park was removed from the river in the fall 2017.

Dietz said when the flows were reduced Nowood Construction began work and completed the construction necessary in the water first, which included placing stabilizing fabric and then rock. They then went back to work on the top side, again putting down the fabric and the rock.

There was some question early on if there would be enough rock, but Dietz said there was more than enough. In fact there was enough left over that Big Horn Cooperative has agreed to store it to be used if there is any settling or sloughing.

There is still some top area which has been reseeded for vegetation to grow this spring as part of the project.

Timing worked well for the entire project with the water work completed before the Bureau of Reclamation needed to increase flows and the reseeding on the soil completed before the snow and freeze hit.

Dietz said the NRCS worked with Nowood Construction with technical expertise on the compaction of the rock on the berm and reseeding.

Nelson Engineering, who engineered the project for NRCS, oversaw the entire construction of the berm.

Dietz said both landowners, Big Horn Cooperative Marketing Association and Mel Weinschrott have been thrilled with construction and how the project turned out.