Groups to report on levees  

Meeting follows Geary Dike failure last June  

By LAURA McVICKER

H&N Staff Writer

April 24, 2007

   Officials hope to move forward Wednesday in the nearly year-long task of pinpointing the location of Klamath County ’s levees, who owns them and their conditions. 

    Two working groups will report their progress during a meeting with the county’s emergency management staff. 

   Five months ago, Klamath County ’s emergency management staff set up the working committees to address these questions after Geary Dike on Upper Klamath Lake failed last June. The broken dike flooded 2,000 acres of farmland, a portion of the Running Y Resort’s golf course and nearby Highway 140 west, causing millions of dollars in damage. 

   Condition of levees 

   Since the failure, officials have wrestled with not knowing the condition of Klamath County ’s levees. Most are privately owned and were built in the 1900s. County officials don’t have a database with all levees or levee owners. 

   Last November, a working group was given the task of listing each levee in the county and who owns it, said Emergency Manager Bill Thompson. Another group was given the task of finding what authority the county has in maintaining levees. 

   The next step 

   After Wednesday’s meeting, officials will decide on how to move forward on inspections and any repairs. 

   Thompson said one of the issues is whether to set up a county district that would make Klamath County eligible for assistance from the U.S. Army’s Corps of Engineers. 

   Free federal inspection is available through the Corps of Engineers for dike owners who are included in special taxing districts or associations organized for dike maintenance. Once a dike is determined to meet standards, the owners are included in the Corps of Engineer’s Rehabilitation and Inspection Program, the area is deemed a levee district and receives immediate assistance in the event of an emergency, a Corps spokesperson told the Herald and News last July. 

   But Thompson said he’s worried the Corps program wouldn’t address other water barriers in the county, such as canal structures. And if the special district is government-sponsored, it makes the county liable for private property. 

   “Not only does it not meet all our needs, (but) it puts us at a great financial danger,” Thompson said. 

   Instead, Thompson recommends private levee owners set up the special district with the Corps program.

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