Lagging funds prevents clearance of logjam caused by tornado

KOKOMO, Ind. (AP) - William Meehan is used to flooding. He and his wife have owned their house along the Wildcat Creek since 1984, and in that time the river has partially submerged their property at least nine times.

In most cases, the flooding hasn't damaged their home, which sits on a high bank 18 feet above the creek just across from the dam at the Kokomo Reservoir along 400 East.

A big exception was in 2013, when historic flooding caused the Wildcat to crest at over 17 feet, leaving 3 feet of water in their basement.

But now, Meehan is worried he's in for worse flooding than ever before.

That's because the EF3 twister that hit the area in August downed hundreds, if not thousands, of trees along the bank of the river located on his property, turning the partial woodlands there into a tangled bramble of debris.

"Trees that were here for 100 years were destroyed in less than a minute," Meehan said.

Downed trees have already created two logjams in the creek. The obstructions bookend his property on the river to the east and the west.

Meehan said the river is already prone to flooding near his home. It's not uncommon for the creek to raise 8 feet or more every year. Now, with two logjams already in place, any high water is sure to pick up the deluge of fallen logs and stack them up behind the jam.

Over time, the obstructions will likely turn into a towering wall of wood that could block the flow of the Wildcat and cause more frequent and severe flooding on his property, he said.

"I'm safe for the moment, but I'm not going to be safe forever. Not now," Meehan said.

He said he knew the logjams were going to be a problem the moment he saw them, so it wasn't long after the tornado hit that he and his wife started calling state and local officials to see who could clean up and remove the obstructions.

The answer? No one.

Phone call after phone call elicited the same response: No local or state government agency has the jurisdiction or the funding to remove logjams from waterways.

George Bowman, assistant director of the Indiana Department of Natural Resource's Division of Water, said state code has always left it up to property owners to clean up logjams, unless the obstruction is located on property owned by the IDNR.

One exception is if the logjam is located adjacent to a bridge, in which case the responsible highway department may be willing to remove it, he said.

Beyond that, removing logjams falls to the owner of the property.

"Unfortunately, there's no program to fund that type of activity," Bowman said. "Our position has been to leave it up to the landowner. As long as they abide by the state's statutes, we have no objections to them doing what they see as necessary. It's truly an individual's preference."

Meehan said his preference is to get rid of the two logjams near his house to prevent worse flooding, but doing so isn't as easy as it might sound.

One jam is created by a fully grown sycamore lying across the river, which has already started to gather debris behind it. The other obstruction upstream is substantially larger and includes multiple tree trunks and brush.

Howard County Deputy Surveyor Greg Lake, who also serves as the county's stormwater district administrator, said safely and effectively removing the jams would likely require a contractor with specialized equipment, and those services can come with a hefty price tag.

He said an estimate to clear a logjam on the Wildcat Creek near Jerome in 2006 came in at $50,000.

Meehan said even if he could afford to pay a contractor to remove the obstructions, the cleanup would only be a temporary fix. With so much flotsam and debris lying along the river bank, another jam is almost guaranteed to form after the next high-water event.

With no government agency in charge of keeping the creek free of obstructions, volunteer groups like the Wildcat Guardians have taken it upon themselves to clean up the river so it remains passable for canoers and kayakers.

Lake said he contacted the non-profit organization to see if they might be able to help dismantle the logjams on Meehan's property, but he was informed the obstructions were too large for members to handle.

That leaves Meehan with only a handful of options - none of which are immediately achievable.

The most long-term solution would be getting the county to designate the Wildcat as a regulated drain, which would allow the county to impose a tax on residents living in the river's watershed that would fund maintenance of the creek.

Lake said getting that designation would require a joint-county taskforce, since the Wildcat Creek watershed is located in Howard, Tipton and Grant counties. Every resident would have to be notified of the proposal, and a public meeting would be held.

"It would be a huge effort," he said. "That's why it's never been done. We don't have that type of staffing or ability to do something that large."

Another option would be applying for money through the IDNR Lake and River Enhancement Grant, which could be awarded for logjam removal. The competitive grant would require a local government sponsor to apply.

Lake said the surveyor's office would be open to applying for the money, but chances of receiving funding for Meehan's property would be extremely slim.

"I wouldn't have any problems looking into trying to apply for that type of grant," he said. "That would be feasible if we can meet the criteria. But this grant is highly competitive. And I mean really competitive."

The final option would be convincing state and federal officials cleaning up the jams would be part of a larger mitigation effort on the Wildcat. That's how the logjam near Jerome was eventually removed, but it took seven years to complete the project, Lake said.

"Unless there's a mitigation project lying in wait, I'm afraid the only way this gentleman's concerns are going to eased is him doing it or his neighbors doing it," Lake said.

Meehan said without any help from the state or the county, that's what he plans to do - slowly chip away at cleaning up the debris along the river bank in his free time. He said that will likely take years.

In the meantime, he'll wait, and be stuck living with the fear that the next big flood could permanently damage his home and his property.

"That river is going to come up, come up and come up and then make a pond around my house," Meehan said. "Down the road, I'm really concerned about having something catastrophic happening. I'm concerned about losing my home."

___

Source: Elkhart Truth, http://bit.ly/2gemj36

___

Information from: Kokomo Tribune, http://www.ktonline.com