By LAURA McVICKER
H&N Staff Writer
August 14, 2006
A comprehensive plan for Klamath County dikes will have to wait in line
behind other emergency preparedness efforts, local officials say.
Emergency exercises dealing with
weapons of mass destruction and a hypothetical Gerber Dam failure are
planned in the next few months, sidelining a project aimed at assembling a
database of levees and dikes in the county, said Klamath County emergency
manager Bill Thompson.
Following a June 15 meeting, emergency officials along with U.S. Corps of
Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation officials formed a dike task force and
planned to create a comprehensive database of dikes.
Gerber dam exercise
But in November, attention will turn to a Gerber Dam-failure exercise,
involving the Bureau of Reclamation and the sheriff's office in addition to
emergency services. The exercise will address how to handle a dam failure,
which Thompson deems a greater risk than another dike break.
“Levees are important, but we have bigger ones right under our
windshield,” Thompson said.
In September, local law enforcement officials will join emergency services
for a federally mandated exercise dealing with weapons of mass destruction.
Dike task force
The intent of the June 15 meeting and the task force was to find and inspect
levees and dikes, Thompson said. From there, the group plans to make
recommendations to owners and others responsible for dike maintenance.
They haven't set their next meeting yet, nor have the Corps of Engineers been in Klamath County since leaving June 16. But a Corps spokeswoman said officials are assessing who is eligible for the Corps' inspection program.
Dike owners who are included in
special taxing districts or associations organized for dike maintenance can
qualify for the inspections. No dike owners or others responsible for dike
maintenance requested federal inspection before the June 15 meeting. So far,
members of the Lakeshore Garden Drainage Association - residents who are in
charge of a levee on Lakeshore Drive - have been the only owners who have
requested federal inspection.
Ironically, the June 15 meeting - set back in March - came a week after
waters poured through a 200-foot gap in the broken dike, flooding 2,000
acres of farmland and closing a portion of Highway 140 for days. It also
caused millions of dollars in damage.
Dike maintenance
Questions then emerged as to who is
in charge of inspecting dikes. County commissioners have said they don't
have jurisdiction over the maintenance of dikes.
Emergency services are in charge of disaster preparedness, but aren't
managers of dikes.
The sheriff's office only steps in where there's a public
safety risk.
Records of owners of land adjacent to and dependent on dikes are available
from the Bureau of Reclamation, yet officials say there are no records of
who is responsible for maintenance.