The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is ready to listen to feedback from Eureka community members about proposed flood walls in two Eureka creeks that feed into the Meramec River.
The Corps is accepting public comments until Dec. 30. For a public comment to be part of the record and be considered in any decisions, it must be received by mail by the deadline, the Corps said.
Comments may be mailed to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory Branch, 1222 Spruce St., St. Louis, 63103-2833. The comments should be made to the attention of Jennifer L. Skiles.
In addition, Julie Wood, Eureka’s city clerk and director of economic development, said comments may be emailed to her at jwood@eureka.mo.us, and she would forward the comments to the Corps of Engineers.
Mayor Sean Flower said several local officials already have submitted public comments, including Rockwood Superintendent Mark Miles, Rockwood Chief Financial Officer Paul Northington, District 110 state Rep. Dottie Bailey and Missouri state Sen. Dave Schatz.
In October, Flower presented a plan during a Board of Aldermen meeting to construct two flood walls.
“Assuming that (the walls) held and didn’t have any issues, (the walls) would have protected us from (floods that occurred in 2015 and 2017), which were both records,” he said. “So, I feel very strongly that it would be a huge improvement.”
Flower said the walls are intended to protect areas of the city most affected by floodwaters, like Old Town, the sewer plant, sections of Hwy. 109, the Eureka High School campus and the Elk Trails subdivision.
A wall to be built in Flat Creek will be located about a mile and a half from the Meramec River, and a wall to go in Forby Creek will be located about a half mile from the river, Flower said.
Flower said the walls will have piping to allow water to flow through the creeks normally, and those pipes could be closed during a flood event.
The mayor also said pumps will be used to divert water over the walls during a flood event.
Flower said the pipes would likely only need to be closed 1.5 percent of the time and would be open 98.5 percent of the time.
The wall at Flat Creek will be 3,672 feet long. It will be constructed with 2,097 feet of earthen material and 1,572 feet of concrete, according to the city’s flood protection plan. The wall at Forby Creek will be 15 feet wide at the top and 200 feet wide maximum at the base and will be made from earthen material, according to the city’s flood protection plan.
Flower said he, city staff members and members of the city’s public safety committee and flood subcommittee have been working on the plan for about two years.
City Administrator Craig Sabo said the city paid $260,167.58 to the Horner and Shifrin engineering firm to develop the flood wall plan.
Flower said the city purchased land on Jan. 7 for $330,000 to execute the plan. He said the new land mainly will be used for access to Forby Creek during the construction of the wall. He said the city could turn the remaining land into a park.
Flower also said most of the flood walls will be built on city property.
Cost
Flower said it would cost an estimated $4,637,337 to build the wall at Flat Creek and an estimated $2,645,000 to build the wall at Forby Creek.
He said the city can pay for the projects with funds from the Proposition E sales tax and the sale of the city’s water and sewer systems to Missouri American Water.
Proposition E is a 1/2-cent sales tax for public safety that voters approved in April 2018. The sales tax is expected to generate $15.9 million over 20 years, and the funds are to be used to replace the Allenton Bridge, build a new police facility and to provide flood prevention and mitigation efforts.
Eureka voters approved selling the city’s water system to Missouri American Water on Aug. 4. The city expects to receive $28 million from Missouri American Water for the transaction.
Flower said the city also expects to have money available that previously was expected to be used to replace the Allenton Bridge. He said the bridge project will cost an estimated $6 million, and Eureka has received a grant to help offset some of the bridge construction expenses.
“I think that is going to come in underneath costs,” Flower said of the Allenton Bridge. “We got a $2 million grant to help with the bridge. My thought is that there’s going to be additional funds that are left over. I kind of estimated $2 million that we originally allocated for the bridge, which we can now use for flooding.”