City ready to make pitch today for west-side flood relief

The City Council is expected to approve today reports that show why flood protection west of the Cedar River needs to be in the Army Corps of Engineers' flood management proposal for Cedar Rapids.

The council also is expected to ask the assistant secretary of the Army (Civil Works) for a waiver that allows a preferred flood management plan the city is developing, instead of one the Corps is working on that would offer flood protection only east of the river.

The reports and waiver are important because the city wants them attached to the Corps' pending Cedar River Feasibility Study. The study is to produce the recommended flood management system for the city that the federal government would help fund.

City officials are trying to get the Corps to seek $152.8 million from the federal government for the system, and Congress to provide even more. The Corps' final report is due Dec. 27.

The city and Corps are working with a timeline (right) that has the feasibility study done in time for inclusion in a Water Resources Development Act bill that Congress can take up early next year.

A draft from the Corps calls for a management system that protects only the river's east side.

“That is just going to be socially and politically unacceptable,” City Council member Chuck Wieneke told The Gazette Editorial Board Monday.

The council meets at 5:30 p.m. today at Hiawatha City Hall.

City officials suggest that the social and regional economic impacts of flood control in Cedar Rapids will benefit not only the city but other communities affected by what happens here.

Those affected by the social impacts include vulnerable populations, such as homeowners and business owners west of the Cedar, according to one of the reports. The percentages of minorities, disabled residents and people living in poverty were higher among those taking flood damage in 2008 than for the city in general, the social impacts report states.

That report goes deep. It includes a call to take into account the affect climate change will have on flood frequency in Cedar Rapids.

The city's preferred plan, which could cost up to $375 million, is not completed. However, it would include additional aesthetics, removable flood walls and increased protection, a briefing document the city's public works department prepared in April shows.

Just adding the west side to the flood management plan would cost about $235 million, city officials said. Protecting only the east side would cost as estimated $103 million, they said.

Figures show the federal government picking up $67 million of the east-side only proposal, far less than what is sought when including the west side. The rest of the money would come from state and local funds.

The Corps' recommendation for the east side is based on a benefit-cost ratio in which the anticipated benefit cannot exceed the costs. But Corps guidelines allow cities to recommend projects for unusual factors that could go beyond that benefit-cost requirement.

Cedar Rapids' situation clearly fits that bill because of the 2008 flood's magnitude, city officials meeting with the Editorial Board said.

City Engineer David Elgin said the Corps is obligated to follow its guidelines but has been helping the city with its recommendation request. City officials said completing a flood management system usually takes five years but the city was able to cut three years from that process with the Corps.