TEMPLE - Texas is home to more than 2,000 flood control dams, many of which were severely damaged by the extreme rainfall events of May 2015 and October 2015. In November 2015, four organizations from the state of Texas wrote a letter to the entire Texas Congressional delegation expressing the need for assistance in repairing the dams that were damaged. The request was made to acquire federal funds to match state and local dollars to put toward the repairs. The Association of Texas Soil and Water Conservation Districts, the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board (TSSWCB), the Texas Conservation Association for Water and Soil, and the Texas Association of Watershed Sponsors all strongly advocated for financial assistance to address these needs.
As part of the appropriations bill passed by Congress in December 2015, $157 million was made available to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service for the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program. The EWP Program was created by Congress to respond to emergencies caused by natural disasters. It is designed to help reduce imminent hazards to life and property threatened by excessive erosion and flooding caused by heavy rains, drought, earthquakes, windstorms and other natural disasters.
On June 7, 2016, funds were released to TSSWCB from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service as a part of the EWP Program to repair dam structures across six counties in Texas. An estimated $5.2 million of federal funds will be put towards flood control dams that need vital repairs as a result of the heavy rainfall events of May 2015. TSSWCB will dedicate an estimated $1.5 million of its funding from the Texas Legislature to ensure that all of the federal funding is adequately matched and utilized on a local level.
The following counties will receive funding to repair a total of 26 dam structures: Cooke County (6 dams), Denton County (1 dam), Ellis County (2 dams), Guadalupe County (1 dam), Montague County (5 dams), Williamson County (2 dams), and Wise County (9 dams). The scope of repairs totaling $6.1 million ranges from auxiliary spillway repair to debris removal and embankment repair.
The TSSWCB’s flood control programs provide grants to local sponsors of flood control dams to address minor operation and maintenance needs where 90% of the cost comes from the state, and more elaborate structural repair grants that are covered by the state at 95%. When federal dollars are available through EWP, the state’s share is lessened to 25% or less. For more information on the agency’s program, go to http://www.tsswcb.texas.gov/floodcontrol.