Bill calls for better levee reporting

But safety concerns would not be addressed until ’17 session

A bill to improve the way Arkansas levee districts report to the state is a "good first step" in fixing the levee system, the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission's attorney supervisor told its board Wednesday.





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The bill, written by Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow, includes new reporting requirements of county clerks on levee districts but does not address accompanying levee safety issues raised during recent flooding.

"It is intended to improve the type of information we have on these districts and to fill the vacancies on these boards," said Crystal Phelps, attorney supervisor with the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission.

Addressing levee safety would be a more involved process that would require stakeholder input, Phelps said, and would be easier to address in the 2017 regular session of the Legislature.

The Arkansas Legislature's special session begins today, and the levee bill, which has an emergency clause, will be among those considered.

Commission Executive Director Randy Young supports the bill.

Rapert's interest in the issue started after he discovered that the board for Perry County Levee District No. 1, near where he lives, had been inactive for decades. That levee was topped in 1990 and twice last year.

"There was nobody to be found," he said Wednesday afternoon. "The levee board was gone. The levee had been inoperable."

Many district boards across Arkansas are dormant, he said. Board members might have died and no one replaced them.

That leads to flooded homes, increased disaster spending and problems with flood insurance and flood-plain designations, Rapert said.

Rapert's bill, he said, is the "first step" in amending state law to improve levees.

The bill would require county clerks to forward all levee district reports to the Natural Resources Commission. Currently, districts are required to send reports to county clerks, but county clerks are not required to send them to the commission.

The reports would include the name of the district, when it was formed and under what statute or legal authority, a map of the district, meeting information, board members and board vacancies.

Districts that don't report face fines, although many of the levee districts -- but not the levees -- are defunct. Rapert said many county judges are already aware of vacancies on inactive boards but have never been able to do anything about them. Prosecuting attorneys make appointments, Rapert said.

The bill also would require county clerks to publish notices in a newspaper or on a county-owned or affiliated website of any levee district board vacancies. After that, the county judge would appoint a board member, and the clerk must publish a notice with the date, time and location of a public hearing before the county judge, during which any appointments would be discussed. Landowners in the district who attend the meeting would fill a vacancy by a majority vote. The county judge would then issue a court order appointing the new district board member.

Natural Resources Commission member Ann Cash of Lake Village said levee districts need strong boards to keep their communities safe.

"Down where we are, we could be wiped out easily," she said. "We live in the shadow of those levees."

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inspects major levees every five years. That covers 93 segments totaling more than 1,200 miles. Few are owned or operated by the Corps. Some were built by the Corps and turned over to local authorities. Thousands of miles of private levees have never been checked by the Corps.

When the Corps finds a problem with a major levee, officials send a report to the local levee district, if one exists. Otherwise, reports are sent to county judges.

Also at the meeting, the commission's board approved nearly $1 million in loans and grants for Perry County Levee District No. 1, which oversees the levee that topped twice last year.

Commission members approved a grant of up to $489,250 and a loan of up to $489,250 for the district for improvements that include raising the levee.

Rapert said the project is an example of what districts can do after becoming operational again. To get the district up and running, officials pieced together information on the district's history and area and eventually appointed new board members.

"We're trying to use this as a pilot ... to try to show what we can do with those inactive districts," Water Resources Development Division manager Mark Bennett told the commission's board.

Rapert said he hopes the district can fix the levee as soon as possible.

"Today, if there was a flood right now, Toad Suck is flooding again," he said.

Metro on 05/19/2016

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