| On Friday,
September 10, Kentucky’s 3rd District Congresswoman Anne Northup announced
that the Pond Creek watershed was identified as a national priority site in the Water
Resources Development Act, the federal law that authorizes all Army Corps of Engineers
flood control projects. As a result, the Pond Creek watershed is eligible to receive a
portion of the $50 million that the legislation provides for flood mitigation projects
around the country. Pond Creek is one of only 23 such project approved this year to
receive this important funding.
Representative Northup played an important role
in securing this funding, and continues her commitment to flood protection issues in
Louisville and Jefferson County. She was also responsible for obtaining federal funding
for the Pond Creek Flood Protection Project, which is currently under construction. Gordon
Garner, MSD Executive Director, said "This special designation in the first group of
watershed restoration projects gives us the chance to accelerate our Pond Creek flooding
and environmental solutions a decade faster."
This funding will be used to mitigate flooding:
restore natural functions in floodprone areas (wetlands and floodplain development); and,
to develop nonstructural (natural) flood abatement projects. Natural restoration and
nonstructural flood abatement controls are now viewed as the best managed, most cost
effective means of protecting persons and property in the floodprone areas.
These projects will be undertaken in cooperation
with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); the Kentucky State Division of Water
(DOW); local government and other local, state and federal agencies. The appropriation
will also help coordinate efforts of Project Impact, a recently approved disaster
mitigation program funded by FEMA, the City of Louisville and Jefferson County Government.
The funding will allow a coordinated approach to
water quality issues (as they pertain to flood protection issues) on a watershed basis and
will eliminate piecemeal or band-aid approaches as was past practice.
For more information on this major development,
please call:
Congresswoman Anne Northup (202) 225-5401
MSD Executive Director Gordon Garner (502)
540-6346
MSD Emergency Response Director Bud Schardein
(502) 540-6319. |
