$3.3M for Levee Projects in the Walla Walla District

Four levees damaged during the 2017 flood season, located within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Walla Walla District area of operations, received a total of approximately $3.3 million in cumulative funding for flood-related repairs under Public Law 115-123, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, signed into law February 9, 2018. 

These levees in the Walla Walla District, and dozens of other projects across the nation, will be funded to mitigate damages resulting from flooding or other natural disasters:

1. Heise-Roberts Levee, on the Snake River in Jefferson County, Idaho;
2. Carmen Levee, on the Salmon River in Lemhi County, Idaho;
3. Gooding Levee, on the Big Wood River in Lincoln County, Idaho;
4. Waitsburg-Coppei Flood Project, on the Touchet River in Walla Walla County, Washington.

“This supplemental funding enables us to conduct these flood-damage repairs and help keep communities safe,” said Alan Feistner, deputy district engineer.

Currently, District staff are facilitating flood fighting work under P.L. 84-99 to address severe erosion at a location on the Heise-Roberts Levee System, reported the Corps.

A USACE contract for emergency flood fighting was expedited and awarded on Friday afternoon, May 18. As of Monday afternoon, May 20, USACE contractors have stabilized the 300-feet-long by 15-feet-wide section of levee that was eroded away by seasonal high flows in the Snake River.

In some locations, the levee had been eroded more than 20 feet in height from the top of the levee – about 8 feet of the levee is visible above the water’s surface.

Complete rehabilitation of damaged sections of the Heise-Roberts Levee System, and the other three levees identified above, is planned to occur in the near future using funding from the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018.