Metro East levees are again certified to withstand a 100-year-level flood.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency made the final signoff last week on the 65-mile system of levees that stretches from Alton to Columbia.
It comes 15 years after FEMA considered revoking the levee鈥檚 accreditation when the Army Corps of Engineers determined the system might be compromised, said Chuck Etwart, supervisor of construction for the Southwestern Illinois Flood Prevention District Council.
鈥淚t was a threat,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat would have meant mandatory flood insurance in the Metro East area. Stricter codes requiring buildings to be built above the base flood elevation.鈥�
That move would have put the 156,000 residents and 4,000 businesses the levees protect in the floodplain and cost those residents and businesses about $50 million a year in flood insurance, Etwart explained. The agency didn鈥檛 end up following through because Madison, St. Clair and Monroe counties established a flood prevention district council to bring the levees up to the 100-year standard, he said.
There wasn鈥檛 anything expressly wrong with the original levees, which had been built in the 1940s and '50s, Etwart said.
鈥淭he only thing that changed over the many years was engineering standards and the measurement of flood risk,鈥� he said. 鈥淓verything that we鈥檝e done is to control that seepage and stabilize the levees.鈥�
Seepage is a perennial challenge for levees, which are designed to stop flood waters from passing through, Etwart said. The flood prevention district council used various methods, like making the levees wider from top to bottom and installing walls down to bedrock that prevent water from flowing underneath, he said.
The recertification of the Metro East levees to 100-year levels is an important milestone, especially for economic development, said Steve Zuber, a partner at commercial real estate brokerage Barber Murphy Group.
鈥淢ost companies are adverse to risk,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd if you have that potential for flooding, and it鈥檚 going to be a problem, people are going to go elsewhere.鈥�
Zuber said it鈥檚 important that companies in the American Bottom floodplain not need flood insurance since it can be pricey. The reaccreditation has made it easier to move forward with some development projects, he added.
The next step for the local levee system is bringing it up to FEMA鈥檚 500-year standard, which will be done by the Army Corps of Engineers, said Tracey Kelsey, program manager for the Metro East levee projects at the St. Louis district of the corps.
鈥淲e are hoping to complete the work within the next three years,鈥� she said. 鈥淣ot all of the funding has been received. We are still dependent on congressional funding for the rest of the costs.鈥�
The Corps will be employing some of the same solutions the local flood prevention district council did to meet FEMA鈥檚 500-year standard, like deep cutoff walls and seepage berms, Kelsey said.
鈥淭he levees will not become taller or larger, we鈥檙e not doing that,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he features that go into the construction are primarily to help prevent when water seeps through underneath the levee.鈥�
The Corps and Flood Prevention District Council have already seen the benefits of this kind of investment. The Flood Prevention District Council鈥檚 projects to achieve the 100-year level were completed in 2018 just before .
鈥淚n 2019, that was the second highest ever on record,鈥� Etwart said. 鈥淎ll the improvements that we built were tested and everything worked as it was supposed to.鈥�
Eric Schmid covers the Metro East for 漏 2024 外网天堂 as part of the journalism grant program: , an initiative of The GroundTruth Project.
