Levee recertification hits snag

City and county officials continue to work toward recertifying the Arkansas River levee, even as a local congressman presses the Federal Emergency Management Agency for an extension of the April 2009 deadline.

U.S. Rep. John Boozman, R-Rogers, testified Wednesday before the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management on the impact of a FEMA plan that requires all government levees to be recertified so that national flood plain maps can be updated.

The recertification deadline is April of 2009, and unless the deadline is extended, local officials say there's virtually no way they can get past multiple bureaucratic hurdles in time. Loss of levee certification means the Van Buren Industrial Park and other areas along the nearly 23-mile levee would lose their flood protection status, possibly forcing business and property owners to either buy flood insurance or vacate the area.

While local officials originally believed they could arrange a contract with the Army Corps of Engineers to inspect and re-certify the levee, the so-called Thomas Amendment, passed in 2000, permits the corps to provide commercially available engineering services only if the services are "not reasonably and quickly available through ordinary business channels," according to a news release from Boozman's office. The corps must also be "uniquely equipped to perform such services."

In a meeting last month with corps representatives from Little Rock, Mayor Bob Freeman and County Judge John Hall were among several officials who expressed frustration with the process, saying that FEMA had set a deadline without a clear idea of how the rectification process would unfold.

In his testimony before the subcommittee, Boozman also criticized the process as vague and ill-defined.

"Communities in my district have been exposed to a confusing and unclear process that has failed to address their questions and concerns in a clear and consistent manner," Boozman said.

Since last month's meeting, City Engineer Brad Baldwin said the city has contacted engineering firms around the region about performing the work.

"We're doing exactly what the mayor said we would do," Baldwin said. "We're pursuing private consulting firms. Not everyone wants to take on a project like this because they're generally not large enough to take on the liability associated with it."

While no Arkansas engineering firms were willing to undergo the project alone, Baldwin said one partners with another company in Fort Worth, Texas, for larger projects. He said the two companies are considering making the levee a joint project. Previously, the Corps gave an estimate of $260,000 to inspect the 21 miles of levee under county jurisdiction and $160,000 to inspect the remaining, city-owned portion.

Hall said Van Buren and Crawford County are especially vulnerable to the deadline because they were among the first in the nation to sign a provisionally accredited levee (PAL) agreement with FEMA stating they would complete the rectification process within two years. He said county officials were unaware of the Thomas Amendment when they signed the agreement.

"There's no way possible we can meet the deadline of the PAL agreement we've signed because the Corps of Engineers has never been given the go-ahead to even start to look at the levees," Hall said. ". ..It's like they never gave us a way to get the certification started. We've just kind of come to a dead-end street here."

Baldwin is working to find out when the levee was last certified, and who certified it. While he suspects the Corps of Engineers performed the inspections in 1999 or 2000, he's having difficulty getting a definitive answer from FEMA.

"I think we're getting a little bit of a run-around," Baldwin said. "I've not been able to talk to a real person who's been able to answer my questions so far."

Both Baldwin and Hall praised Boozman for his involvement in the process.

"From day one, he's been very supportive," Baldwin said.

Hall expressed cautious optimism about the prospect of an extension.

"You know, since Congressman Boozman has really put an effort into this thing and he's working up in Washington, where this stuff has to come from, I feel like there's a good chance we might work out some kind of extension on this PAL agreement so we can at least try to fit within the framework they've given us," Hall said.

"But," he added, "there's no guarantee."

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