BOARD00158

• Board Meeting Date: 12/12/1973
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

This is the reason for the 50 percent. As a matter of fact, in the
bill that was considered by the last General Assembly, they had
appropriated to us $500,000 for flood plain studies. There is no way
we could have spent that this fiscal year, but that's how serious
they regard this problem. That bill did not pass. That was in the
land-use bill that was considered. I told the committees considering
this legislation that I would present the matter to the board for
the adoption of a definitive state policy. We would prefer to go to
the legislature with specific projects, rather than having lump sums
appropriated.

I

Mr. Stapleton: What is the state engineer doing, if anything, in
this area?

Nr. Sparks: The state engineer is making some flood control studies.
Apparently, he contemplates setting up a flood warning system and a
computer study of flood plains.

I had a conference with the state engineer and Mr. Ten Eyck about a
week ago to review the programs of this board and the state engineer.
I pointed out that that was not the function of the state engineer's
office to make flood plain studies. We don't know of any way to
crank in some magic figures in a computer to come out with a study
of flood:hazard areas. The state engineer does have the responsibility
for checking dam safety. Flood studies as they relate to spillways
is the responsibility of the state engineer, but nothing further.
The flood control warning system is the responsibility of the National
Weather Bureau. We work with those people. As a matter of fact,
flood control warning is very difficult at the best because these
floods happen suddenly and there is no computer that we know of that
can predict when a flood will occur. As a matter of fact, nobody
has been able to predict the occurrence of a flood in an area such
as ours. We can predict water levels downstream after high rainfall
in the upper regions, but that is the best we can do. So I can't
tell you how far the state engineer intends to go in this field. I
don't know.

I~. Stapleton: What do you expect out of the board at this meeting?

Mr. Sparks: The adoption of a policy that we will request the legis- I
lature to fund the local cost of flood plain studies of not to exceed
50 percent from state funds.

Mr. Stapleton: Do you anticipate this will be on the short session?
Or are we talking about a year from now?

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