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Western Iowa Flood Control Structures Work Well

June 19, 2008

Outlet structure from Three Mile Lake to Three Mile Creek prior to June heavy rains.
Three Mile Lake outlets water to Three Mile Creek after heavy rains hit Creston area.
(Top) Water flows from Three Mile Lake before heavy rains hit the area. Photo courtesy of Mark McCurdy, NRCS. (Above) Heavy flows of water outlet from Three Mile Lake to Three Mile Creek June 6, following consecutive days of more than four inches of rain. Photo courtesy of Duane Johnson, NRCS

Conservationists in western Iowa are reporting structures built to protect agricultural land, homes and other infrastructure from flooding are holding up well after a barrage of rains hit during the first weeks of June.

Some of the most severe weather and heaviest rain occurred in Union County in southern Iowa. Along with severe thunderstorms and reports of tornadoes, up to eight inches of rain fell in parts of the county the evening of Wednesday, June 4, to the morning of Thursday, June 5. Another inch or more fell in parts of the county June 8.

Hurley Creek Flood Control Structure on the north side of the city of Creston protects about 400 homes. It has a normal pool area of 16 acres, and a flood pool area of 36 acres. Union County Emergency Management Director Roger Nurnberg said despite the flood control dam, some area residents found water in their basements for the first time in 40 years. But he said the damage could have been much worse. “I recall those homes having water halfway up the basement walls before the Hurley Creek dam was there,” he said. “I think the dam did its job.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Southern Iowa Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) worked with the city of Creston to complete Hurley Creek dam in 1977. District Conservationist Paul Goldsmith, with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Creston, said flooding in the city of Creston was nothing compared to what it could have been. “Had [Hurley Creek dam] not been there, it would have been a total disaster area,” he said.

Two large watershed structures outside Creston also prevented flood damage. The 640-acre Twelve Mile Lake, built in 1984, and 866-acre Three Mile Lake, built in 1994, were planned and designed with funding through the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Program (PL-566). According to NRCS, these two lakes and accompanying 60 smaller watershed dams provide parts of Union and Adair County an estimated average annual benefit of $2.25 million in flood damage reduction to agricultural land, roads and bridges, erosion reduction, water supply and recreation. “Without the two lakes and the watershed dams, there would have been considerable structural damage to roads and cropland,” said Goldsmith.

Nurnburg says both lakes were very close to going over their emergency spillways, but never did. “These structures protected rural homes and cropland, and Twelve Mile Lake protects the Southern Iowa Rural Water Association’s water treatment plant and the Burlington Northern railroad lines, as well,” he said.

On a tour of the Creston area June 12, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said it’s a testament to the conservation partnership between local, state and federal agencies that agricultural land, roads and bridges in the area sustained only minor damage. But he said further support and manpower is needed to provide this kind of protection statewide. “Conservation on the land is working, but we have more to do,” he said. “It takes hard work, it takes some dollars, and it takes people to make it happen.”

This 45-year-old pond beautifies a city park and controls flooding in Dunlap, Iowa.
The city of Dunlap incurred only minor flooding thanks to a pond in the city park, which just happens to be a 45-year-old flood control structure designed and constructed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (Photo courtesy of Russ Kirth, NRCS)

Further west, Harrison County District Conservationist Russ Kirth said the small town of Dunlap would have incurred severe flooding if not for a 45-year-old four-acre dam protecting it. The dam, called Site B-3, is just one of 137 installed as part of the Mill-Picayune Creek Watershed Project, funded by PL-566. More than five inches of rain hit Dunlap in the first week of June. “We would have seen low-lying flooding without the B-3 dam,” said Kirth. “The city developed a really nice park around the pond that provides recreation for the citizens of Dunlap. But on Sunday [June 8], B-3 provided flood control that many people here may have forgotten about.”

Dunlap's mayor Fonley Allen agreed with Kurth that the structure, located at Pleasant View Park, held back a lot of water and reduced the flow through town. “Without the structure we would have had a lot more flooding in town,” he said.

 

Contact:
Jason Johnson, Public Affairs Specialist
USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service
Des Moines, Iowa
Phone: 515-323-2701


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