(Spirit Lake)– Dickinson County Supervisors today (Tues.) heard an update from Tony Thelen representing 30 homeowners in the Garlock Slough area that experienced moderate to severe flood damage this past June. Thelen says they’ve been working with the city of West Okoboji and Emergency Management to put together a resiliency plan to address future flood events in that area. He says the plan is based on a recently completed engineering study they authorized…
“What we’re planning to do to protect the homeowners going forward is to protect both from a small increase over time like we experienced in 1993, gradual, as well as epic rainfall. To do that we do need berming, more permanent berming, along Garlock Slough. And the engineering study told us where we need that berming. Also, we need pumping from some retention ponds into Garlock Slough so that it can get into West Okoboji.”
Thelen says plans for retention of water also should be required before any additional development takes place in that area…
“In the 1,700 acre watershed of Garlock Slough, there are sensitive areas that we know if that’s developed, and the water retention is not addressed, we know that it’s going to be privy to more risk for flooding of Garlock Slough. And there’s relatively little development right now in Garlock watershed, but there’s some slated for development in the future.”
Thelen says construction of a bridge at the Lower Gar Outlet is also a critical part of their plan…
“We had to build a three thousand foot sandbag wall to sequester West Okoboji from communicating with Garlock so that we could pump out the flood water. Otherwise we would have just been pumping in a circle. So the West Okoboji exposure, we’re counting on something to happen to lower that water over time through the studies that have been done in the past on the Lower Gar bridge.”
Thelen adds the plan includes some other provisions as well…
“The plan’s going to have where to put sandbags, where to get bags from, temporary barriers, perhaps, and we need to finish out the pumping and the berming on our own. And we’ve got to figure out a way to do that before this summer.”
Thelen says a preliminary estimate puts the cost on installing berms and pumps at roughly $1.1 million. Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Ehret suggested the group apply for a grant through the state hazard mitigation program.
Thelen also called on officials to update Dickinson County’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan to incorporate flood resiliency components that were learned over the past year.
