Des Plaines dedicates home-saving Levee 50
Des Plaines opened a new chapter in its relationship with the Des Plaines River Thursday morning when it held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of the Levee 50 flood control project.
"It took seven years to get this done, but the flooding we had back in September proved that this levee works," saud Mayor Tony Arredia. "We had no flooding east of the levee and that is what this was meant to prevent."
The combination of the levee wall and new pumps was credited at the time with holding back enough water to spare about 400 homes and businesses in Des Plaines from taking in water. The project cost about $15 million, of which the city of Des Plaines contributed about $1.3 million.
Another part of Des Plaines' periodic flooding problems, flooding west of the river, Arredia said, will be taken care of by the Big Bend Lake flood control project which is set to begin next summer. U.S. Senator Dick Durbin has set aside $3.5 million in federal funding for that effort, Arredia added.
The final piece of the puzzle, he said, must be handled by Des Plaines itself and that involves increasing the size of its sewers and culverts to handle more storm water.
Levee 50 is just one of six federal projects in this watershed area that are planned to control flood waters at an estimated cost of about $72 million. The plan for those projects grew out of severe flooding in 1986 and 1987.
It's taken years to develop and execute because of multiple jurisdictions involved at federal, state, county and municipal levels and the large cost of funding the projects, officials have said.
Severe flooding the last two years has reemphasized the importance of the work.
"Mother Nature has a vote and she proved that in September," said Col. Vincent Quarles, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Chicago District.
"As soldiers and engineers, we, in the Corps, are challenged to reduce risk to people and property like the 10,000 homes that were flooded here in 1986," he continued. "But we cannot work alone. It takes teamwork."
Among those acknowledged Thursday for that teamwork were U.S. Representatives Jan Schakowsky and Peter Roskam, Senator Dick Durbin, the Cook County Board, the Cook County Forest Preserve, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and the mayors of neighboring towns.
In fact, according to Arlan Juhl of the IDNR, the Levee 50 project is due to win a merit award for its flood control benefits, as well as the scenic river walk, bicycle trails and horse trails that were incorporated into the project. The bicycle trail provides a crucial link to 29 miles of the Des Plaines River Trail - part of the Grand Illinois Trail that spans 500 miles through northern Illinois and is the state's longest continuous trail.
Meanwhile, residents of Des Plaines who suffered flooding on September 13 and 14 have until Dec. 16 to apply for federal disaster assistance at www.fema.gov or by phoning (800) 621-3362, according to FEMA Public Information Officer Kim Anderson. So far, $42 million in assistance has been granted to Illinois residents, including 35,887 in Cook County.
"FEMA has been great to Des Plaines," said Mike Kozak, deputy police chief and executive coordinator of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for Des Plaines.
"They set up a disaster recovery center here and have been giving out grants and low-interest loans to qualifying residents and small businesses," he said. "It seemed like they always had more than enough people in the center to answer people's questions and it was pretty easy to apply."
As for the city, park district, schools and other public entities, they qualify for public assistance where they will receive 75 cents on the dollar for every qualifying flood-related expense. Des Plaines has just begun that application process, Kozak said.