Midwest States Grapple with Levee Problems, Flood Insurance

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A group scrambling to upgrade Mississippi River levees in southwestern Illinois before new floodplain maps potentially raise insurance costs said it can make the fixes for $160 million to $170 million – and pay for it with sales taxes and bonds.

The Southwestern Illinois Flood Protection District Council said the fixes would make the 64 miles of barriers capable of handling a 100-year flood, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s threshold for classifying an area a high-risk flood area.

The Army Corps of Engineers has said $300 million to $500 million could be needed to restore the southwestern Illinois levees to the protection level they had when they were built after World War II, capable of weathering a 500-year flood.

The council stands poised to hire one of three contractors bidding to do the work, although it’s unlikely the fixes on the levees spanning three counties would be done before Jan. 1, when new flood-hazard maps being drawn up by FEMA are to take effect.

Those maps are expected to show the region’s levees functionally useless, meaning they are unable to handle a 100-year flood.

In western Indiana, owners of nearly 800 properties could be forced to buy flood insurance unless the town can provide federal officials proof that its levee system will provide protection. FEMA plans to end accreditation for the West Terre Haute levee, the only FEMA-accredited levee in Vigo County, because it lacks required federal documentation that allows the area to be listed as a moderate flood risk.

FEMA officials notified Indiana’s West Terre Haute Levee Association on Feb. 13, 2007, that it had two years to provide the documentation to support accreditation. No reports were filed with FEMA, prompting the agency to begin the de-accreditation process, a spokesperson said.

“We have no way of determining if this levee meets the federal standards or not, so we have to initiate the de-accreditation,” said Roger Denick, an engineer for Strategic Alliance for Risk Reduction, a consulting group for FEMA.

For the West Terre Haute levee to regain its accreditation, a professional engineer must certify that the levee is 3 feet above a base flood elevation. The town also must prove that there is no appreciable erosion of levee embankments, that the embankment is stable and that seepage will not jeopardize its foundation.

Such work could cost $250,000 to $425,000, said Arbie Montgomery, a founding member of the West Terre Haute Levee Association – money officials said the town can’t afford.

“It’s a money game. That levee is in great shape. There is no tree growth, ground squirrels or nothing,” Montgomery said.

Unless accreditation is restored before the new maps are drawn, 787 parcels would be reclassified as a high insurance risk area and flood insurance required, Denick said.