HELENA – After back-to-back flooding over the past two springs, the Lewis and Clark Conservation District and Lewis and Clark County are creating a group to develop a flood mitigation plan for the Augusta area.
The group will address current and potential flood damage to properties in and around Augusta with the goal of developing solutions to protect agricultural land, private property and public infrastructure.
The conservation district will work with state departments like Transportation, Environmental Quality, and Fish, Wildlife and Parks, as well as landowners and other stakeholders on the project.
County commissioner Susan Good Geise said flooding along Elk Creek and in Augusta is a complex and costly issue.
“Certainly, for Lewis and Clark County residents, I mean, we spend hundreds and hundreds, thousands of dollars on infrastructure there, on roads and bridges. You know, some of those bridges that were wiped out we can’t even get to yet. They’re county-owned bridges, but they are so far up Elk Creek that they are not accessible, but they are going to play a pivotal role on what we do moving forward,” said Geise.
Officials said as the plan moves forward, they will look at funding for projects, including a Department of Natural Resources and Conservation grant that could pay for a detailed hydrologic analysis of the entire length of Elk Creek.
A meeting on the new flood mitigation working group will be held Friday, June 14, at 11 a.m. at the Youth Center in Augusta.
-Reported by Christine Sullivan/MTN News
