MILTON Ƶ Milton residents will have a chance to give input on a long-awaited project that will address flooding in the area during a workshop and public meeting Tuesday, April 9, at Milton Middle School.
The Huntington District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will conduct a workshop and public meeting from 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the school cafeteria at 1 Panther Trail in Milton.
USACE representatives will have tables set up with information on the project and be available to have one-on-one discussions. The public meeting presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m. followed by a questions and answers segment finishing around 8:30 p.m.
The meetingƵs purpose is to give residents a chance to see the current designs from the Lower Mud River Flood Risk Management Project. The goal of the project is to reduce the effects of flooding to the central business district of Milton from the Mud River, said project manager Brian Lowe.
The Flood Risk Management Project design consists of an earthen levee with sections of concrete floodwall built along the Mud River, Lowe said. The upstream tie end of the project will be around 84 Lumber in Milton. The downstream tie in will be near the Cooper Family Farm Corn Maze and will end near the Gables development, Lowe said.
Once the levee and floodwall mix are constructed, the chances of areas in the central business district flooding in any given year Ƶ which is currently very high Ƶ would significantly decrease, Lowe said. The floodwall/levee is being designed to bring MiltonƵs chance of flooding in a given year to a .4% chance.
ƵIt would take an event thatƵs fairly large to be able to exceed whatƵs designed,Ƶ Lowe said.
Flooding in Milton dates back from the 1900s and its flood of record in 1997, according to historical data, Lowe said. The 1997 flood did approximately $25 million in damage, he said.
Flooding in Milton has been studied for decades. The Natural Resources Conservation Service, an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that provides technical assistance to farmers and other private landowners and managers studied flooding in Milton in the 1980s and early 1990s. The flooding project was later transferred to the Corps in the late Ƶ90s. The Corps had a design agreement signed with the West Virginia Conservation Agency in 1999.
At the time, the Corps started a study that looked at the entire lower reach of the Mud River looking for possible alternatives to reduce damages or impacts from flooding. The study concluded that there was a feasible project that could provide a lot of flood risk management benefits to the central business district of the city of Milton itself.
A draft report from the 1999 findings was published around May 2004. The projectƵs progress has been slow due to funding issues. Over the years the project has gone through several rounds of continued progress and stoppage because of lack of funding.
In 2018, the Bipartisan Budget Act, Public Law 115-123, provided supplemental funding outside of the normal USACE budget, according to the USACE website. The project was recognized as a Long-Term Disaster Recovery Investment Plan and received funding.
Because of the Bipartisan Budget Act funding and $190.7 million from the fiscal year 2023 omnibus bill from West VirginiaƵs senators in February 2023, will finally be able to finish the design and start construction on the flood risk management project, Lowe said.
Lowe said although he knows many residents are skeptical of the projectƵs completion because of the several rounds of studies done in the past that were halted for financial reasons, he is hopeful that the project will soon be complete.
ƵWhat is unique about where we are now is that we have secured the funds needed to construct the project,Ƶ Lowe said.
Lowe said he looks forward to being able to start the construction phase in the near future.
The project has federal and non-federal funding, Lowe said. The projects non-federal sponsors are West Virginia and the City of Milton. The project also has external stakeholders and other natural resource agency.
ƵWe want to make sure that weƵve got a quality project that balances all the competing needs, in terms of providing the flood risk management benefits of the projects intended (and) to provide balancing that with impacts to the human environment and the natural environment,Ƶ Lowe said.
High water events still engulf Milton with its most recent events in 2019, 2021 and the February 2023 flooding, which Lowe said is the most significant of the three. Several structures were damaged in the 2023 flooding as the water sat below the tops of small cars.
After the public meeting on Tuesday, the corps will have other opportunities for residents to hear and speak with the corps on the flood risk management project during Ƶoffice hoursƵ at Milton City Hall, 1139 Smith St. Dates and times can be accessed on the Corps
Lowe said there is no official timeline for bids and construction, but the bid process is expected to take several months and construction is expected to take at least three years.
