In what was a five year process to complete for the City of Navasota, the hydrology study by the Army Corps of Engineers on Cedar Creek has been completed and they have made their recommendations.
The city agreed to the study almost a year ago, as the Corps of Engineers did a study of the creek, as well as a look into what improvements or projects might be suggested and helped paid for by the federal government. City Manager Brad Stafford explained what the study found.
“The short answer is that Cedar Creek does not carry as much water as what FEMA had anticipated in their records…they could not find the engineering numbers that FEMA used. No one knows where those are. So they went back and completely evaluated the entire system with the drainage that would be coming into that creek. It was determined that how much water actually flows through from their study versus what FEMA’s study showed. And it is considerably less water,” said Stafford
Stafford says that, after concluding the study, there were no projects they could come up with that would be an improvement to the drainage in the city.
And as for the next steps for the city, it is now about working with the Corps of Engineers and FEMA to get an accurate floodplain.
“They [Corps of Engineers] are going back to the drawing board to come back to us with a potential project to study and modify the FEMA study levels and put together a new flood map off of Cedar Creek. That is a roughly $50,000 project, which is considerably cheaper than what we though we would have to pay anyway,” Stafford said.
Stafford mentioned as well that the new drainage construction on Railroad Street should help reduce the potential for flooding in the downtown area.