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Watershed dams protect ag lands, roads, towns in rural KansasKansas Flooding can be a frequent scourge to farms and small communities alike. Excessive rain can turn a docile creek into a torrent of water that inflicts widespread damage to homes, roads, and agricultural land. Lives and livelihoods can be affected and rebuilding efforts can drain both public and private coffers. In May 2007, rural Kansans faced major flooding. On the first weekend of the month, a torrential rainstorm dropped four to eight inches in many places and up to 12 in others. Two weeks later, another storm dropped virtually the same amounts in the same places. Both rainstorms resulted in flash flooding on several streams. USDA offers Small-Watershed Program to rural areas Fortunately, over 780 small floodwater-retarding dams and associated land treatment (e.g. terraces, reduced tillage practices, riparian buffers) were in place to moderate the floodwaters' destructive paths. Built in small drainages, the dams with pool surface areas of 20-200 acres were designed to capture and slowly release excessive rainfall runoff. The construction of these small floodwater-retarding dams was funded through the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act, Public Law 83-566 (PL-566). Passed in 1954, the Act authorizes the USDA to provide local groups financial and technical assistance for flood prevention and other watershed-based activities. The PL-566 program is administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Flood prevention includes installing land treatment practices, small floodwater-retarding dams, and other measures which prevent severe flooding to agricultural land, roads, and urban areas. "After extensive flooding in the early 1950s, rural Kansans looked for help in protecting their communities, and they found it at the USDA," said Harold L. Klaege, state conservationist for the NRCS in Kansas. "Since then, Kansas NRCS has developed strong partnerships with state and local entities to plan and install effective flood-prevention measures." Locally led flood-prevention plans "A distinctive strength of PL-566 is that it is locally led," said Klaege. In Kansas, planning leadership comes from organized watershed districts. In the last 53 years, these districts have developed 63 watershed work plans and built 80 percent of the planned 969 small floodwater-retarding dams." Small watershed program continues to benefit all Kansans "Today," Klaege said, "an estimated 275,000 Kansans annually glean $41 million in direct benefits from measures installed under the program. Benefits include flood protection, water quality, reduced soil erosion, and wildlife habitat." "For every $1 spent installing those structures, which have a design life of 50 to 100 years, $1.40 is returned to the local economy," said Klaege. As the recent heavy rains in Kansas have demonstrated, the PL-566 program can be a stabilizing presence in the economic and social development of rural Kansas. Downstream from the conservation practices and watershed dams, farmsteads and farmland are being protected and communities' investments in infrastructure preserved. An example of watershed dams at work "The watershed dams are working great." said Leonard Tanking, Vermillion, who has served on the Black Vermillion Watershed Board for over 30 years and president for the last 15. This watershed is located in parts of Marshall and Nemaha counties. "The watershed dams protect the town of Frankfort from floodwaters as well as agricultural land, rural homes, and roads," said Tanking. He can remember when the town of Frankfort flooded on a regular basis and he rode down Main Street in a boat. Finished just in time to handle the heavy rains of early May is a 37-acre dam north of Frankfort. Completed last summer, the dam did its job by holding the water and then releasing it slowly, according to Tanking. The overflow pipe only flowed for four days. "Our watershed planned 108 dams for flood protection. Seventy-eight have been built," said Tanking. "However, more money would be needed to complete the dams as well as willing landowners to donate the land needed for the dams." Tanking donated land for two watershed dams and has enrolled the land around them in the Conservation Reserve Program to help maintain good water quality. Six of the dams were built with State Cost-Share Assistance and the others were completed with PL-566 assistance. "I take pride in those dams," says Tanking, "I mow around them and allow 'Walk-in Fishing,' so others can enjoy them, too." The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks stock the dams with fish, according to Tanking. Visit your local NRCS office to learn more about natural resources conservation and the watershed program in Kansas. The office is located at your local USDA Service Center (listed in the telephone book under United States Government or on the Internet at offices.usda.gov). More information is also available on the Kansas website at www.ks.nrcs.usda.gov. 0 Date: 6/21/07
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