The state Conservation Agency’s executive director asked legislators to keep the agency’s budget intact for the next fiscal year in order to maintain momentum on fixing and maintaining aging dams.

In Tuesday afternoon’s Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding, Brian Farkas, executive director for the West Virginia Conservation Agency, outlined issues with dams in West Virginia.

Farkas said there are 170 high-hazard small watershed dams, which he estimated provides close to $100 million in flood protection a year. About 60% of West Virginia residents are protected by dams.

More than half of these structures, he said, do not meet current design standards. He explained that when dams were built, they were under a certain hazard qualification. However, as more people and industry moved below these dams, that made the classification a higher hazard.  To replace these dams would cost more than $1.7 billion.

Dams have structural issues as well. Farkas estimated close to 80% are 50 years or older. As these structures get older, they can develop seeps and slips, problems with the toe drains not functioning, problems with the trash racks not working efficiently, and outlook channels submerged under sediment or water.

Farkas said addressing seeps and slips on eight dams has an estimated engineering cost of $447,625. Fixing or repairing toe drains, which collect water moving through channels into a draining system, is estimated to cost $111,000. Farkas said 12 of these toe drains cannot be found and 10 need barriers to keep animals out.

Replacing and rebuilding 21 trash racks which collect debris, has an estimated cost of $436,000.

Outlook channels, which are concrete structures allowing water to pass through the structure, have an average cost of $5,000 per dam.

Costs for routine maintenance, including cutting grass or keeping trees from growing on the embankments, have been increasing every year. Farkas estimated for 2019, the cost is $965,000.

Farkas said no federal money is available for repairs. The National Resources Conservation Service provides money to rehabilitate dams. This could cost between $101 million and $500 million to rehabilitate 104 structures. There is a federal cost share of 65/35 so West Virginia would need to come up with $35 million to $175 million as a match, Farkas said.

The Legislature allocated an additional $3 million in the 2020 fiscal year to address dams. Farkas mentioned two in particular—the Upper Buffalo No. 4 and the South Fork dam – which both have contracts in place. Farkas asked legislators not to cut the agency’s budget.

“This kind of work is not one and done,” Farkas said. “It takes a couple of years to get the momentum going and to get contracts. … It may take a year or more but we need resources,” he said.

“They’re old and they’re getting older,” Farkas later said. “There is an opportunity to continue their existence and lifespan but we need to invest in them. I understand a lot of challenges face the Legislature daily. … What we’re asking is this is a public safety issue. This is important for flooding issues. Mitigating is just as important as anything else.”

National Guard Major General James Hoyer told legislators progress has been made on RISE cases and West Virginia has been taken off the FEMA manual drawdown process.

In Tuesday’s Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding, Hoyer and Mike Todorovich, director of the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, updated legislators on RISE cases.

RISE currently has 388 active cases, 348 of those cases have contracts awarded for construction, 32 are in the purchasing process, and eight remain. Hoyer said cases are churning through and as those eight go through the process, more will come up behind them.

“Where we are now, VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) informed me there are a total of 1,384 cases out there, 400 to review to determine if any are eligible even though they may have been told otherwise,” Hoyer said.

Hoyer told the committee additional staff have been hired, who are going through about 45 cases per week.
“We have a path forward to get through all of those,” he said.

Since June, active cases have gone down from 479 to 397 last month, and down to 348 this month. Last month, Hoyer told the Flooding committee some of the cases have come off the list because reviewing cases found that some had duplicated benefits or had income levels outside of HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) requirements for funding.

A requirement under the Fair Housing Act is to conduct outreach related to slum and blight approval. Hoyer said right now, November 1 is the date to take houses down and contractors have been awarded. An objective, Hoyer said, is to put 60 foundations in place before winter.

Hoyer said seven bridges have been completed. He mentioned one bridge is currently on hold in Clendenin. The bridge serves 17 families. However, before construction can take place, a mussel study needs to be done. The cost, he said, is $27,000.

“If we don’t complete that before Oct. 1, we have to wait until April because of the timeline related to mussel spawning,” Hoyer said. “We are working with the DOH (Division of Highways), who has a group of people to help us meet requirements for Fish and Wildlife and HUD.”

Todorovich updated the committee on FEMA, saying West Virginia has completed requirements needed to come off the manual drawdown process. According to a news release from the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, the process was in place starting November 2015 and by being released from manual drawdown, the division will be able to operate more efficiently.

Todorovich explained there were two reasons for the release from manual drawdown – completing policies required and completing the monitoring program, which were both deemed satisfactory.

There are two lingering issues with school constructions, Todorovich said. In Clendenin, mineral rights disputes have put construction on hold and in Nicholas County, the footprint of land from the school increased by 10 acres, which was more than originally listed.

For hazard mitigation funds, Todorovich, said he believed the first bid of mitigation money could be in 45 days. He clarified this is 45 days until funds are dispersed. He did not expect to see projects completed for three to four months.