40. Community Need Cities along the Great Miami River in southwest Ohio count on the Miami Conservancy District’s (MCD) flood protection system to safeguard their residents, property, infrastructure and way of life from river flooding. MCD’s five earthen embankment dams, 55 miles of levees, maintained channel, and preserved floodplain have protected cities from Piqua to Hamilton for over 100 years. However, those 100 plus years have taken a toll on all of MCD’s infrastructure including the levee systems in our riverfront cities which include earthen embankments, concrete revetments, concrete and stone floodwalls, floodgates, and storm water pipes.

The concrete in the walls and revetments is well past its useful life and is continuing to deteriorate rapidly. There are areas of erosion in the earthen embankments that require major repairs. There are also openings in some of the levees where roads pass through that can now be closed permanently to prevent flooding. Repairs would include repairing and replacing concrete, replacing concrete revetment with more natural green erosion protections where possible, repairing stone walls, repairing levee erosion and protecting it from future erosion with concrete or more natural solutions, repairing stone walls, repairing storm water pipes, and filling the gaps in the levees with high quality earthen materials. All of these repairs are necessary, time sensitive, and beyond MCD’s current funding resources.

These levee systems are the first and last line of defense preventing catastrophic flood waters from the Great Miami River entering our cities, following the 5 dams upstream of the protected communities. If any of these levees fail the adjacent cities would be flooded in a matter of minutes. MCD’s levees protect more than 47,000 properties, over $7 billion in property value, 6 hospitals, over 50 schools and colleges, over 800 miles of public roads, 14 wastewater treatment plants, and 9 water treatment plants. There are well over 1 million people in our region who rely on these facilities. All of these facilities would be inoperable and unusable if covered with flood waters.

The Great Flood of 1913 killed over 300 people and brought the day to day lives of survivors to a standstill. It is still the worst natural disaster in Ohio’s history, and floods are still the greatest natural disaster threat to our region. Property damage experienced in 1913 has been estimated to be over $2 billion in today’s economy. Beyond the monetary benefit, the cumulative benefits of keeping our region’s world class flood protection system strong may be immeasurable.

MCD is an innovative and influential example of a watershed-based and integrated flood protection regional government agency that works collaboratively across political boundaries. MCD’s flood protection system spans 7 counties and over 100 miles of the Great Miami River. It is critical to the viability, quality of life, and growth of our region. It was designed and built between 1913 and 1922 as the largest public works project in the world. The $30M+ price tag was entirely locally funded. And almost all of the maintenance and capital improvement work since then has been locally funded as well.

MCD staff has pursued state and federal grant and loan funding over the decades, but success has been minimal. Unfortunately, history has shown that the few state and federal funding sources available for flood protection have been given mostly to the Army Corps of Engineers and Ohio Department of Natural Resources for projects to repair infrastructure that has been severely neglected or has already failed. MCD has maintained and cared for its world class flood protection system properly over the last 100 years, almost entirely with local dollars. It has been maintained so well in fact that it has prevented MCD from having access to limited state and federal funds.

MCD has been a good steward of local funds and has efficiently maintained the system. After over 100 years of protection, major capital investments in our dams and levees is needed in the next several years. The cost of the needed improvements are estimated to exceed $150M and would put a heavy burden on local communities if paid solely by them. Your assistance with obtaining state and federal funding assistance for this critical work would be greatly appreciated.