Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Commissioners table decision on flood mitigation feasibility study
WORLAND – More than three years after an ice-jam flood event that flooded homes on the west side of Worland, figures were provided for a feasibility study to determine what actions could help prevent future flooding.
On Tuesday, Oct. 6, Washakie County Emergency Management/Homeland Security Director Kami Neighbors presented to the Washakie County Commissioners, the estimate provided by the Army Corps of Engineer to perform the feasibility study on the Big Horn River.
Neighbors told the commissioners that the feasibility study currently would cost the commissioners at least $375,000 at this time. She and the commissioners then went on to discuss the possibility of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) potentially passing into law soon, which could increase the amount of federal funding to the project and reduce the cost for the county.
The commissioners decided to table the decision until they learn whether or not the WRDA is passed and how that will affect the funding of the project.
The feasibility is the second part of mitigating future ice-jam flooding along the Big Horn River, specifically near the Big Horn Avenue/US 20 bridge.
When large blocks of ice floated down the Big Horn River and caused flooding in downtown Worland in February 2017, response to the event was huge from the community.
The efforts to protect homes and the community was a huge part of the recovery effort, and removing more than 34,000 cubic yards of a sand bar from the middle of the river next to Big Horn Avenue Bridge later that same year was a major part of preventing a future catastrophe.
The US Army Corps of Engineers from the Omaha District visited Worland in August 2019, with a stop by the river prior to determining costs for the study.