Were watershed improvements a saving grace?

Watershed structures located throughout the region likely helped reduce the effects of flooding following constant and sometimes heavy rainfall across Bourbon County the weekend of April 29-30.

Frank Young, an engineer who works with two area watershed districts, explained the purpose of the Marmaton Watershed District No. 102 and the Mill Creek Watershed District No. 98, as well as structures, more commonly known as dams, that were built to help alleviate flooding concerns.

The Marmaton district has 25 structures while the Mill Creek district has 18 dams, Young said.

Young said the dams help “take the sting out of floods on the Marmaton.”

“This recent storm was mostly in eastern Bourbon County and probably not in the watershed areas,” he said. “It was centered over Fort Scott. There was no water coming down from Uniontown and the western area to keep it as long. The floods don’t last as long and don’t get as high as they used to. There’s still flooding but it doesn’t have the sting and last for two or three days like they used to.”

Young said the Mill Creek watershed district covers roughly 30,000 acres in Bourbon County. The Marmaton district covers about 207,000 acres of drainage in Bourbon, Allen and Crawford counties, and “mostly Bourbon,” he said.

“It (Marmaton district) extends from the headwaters in Moran and ends where it joins with Mill Creek at about the bridge over North National Avenue, between National and the bypass,” he said.

Young said the Marmaton Watershed District No. 102 was formed in 1986 by a vote of landowners in that area.

“It’s a self-governing, self-taxing district,” he said. “It collects property taxes and there’s a small mill levy off the land. With that money, they petition the state for cost share on structures that would hold back flood waters.”

The Mill Creek Watershed District No. 98 formed in 1978. Young said plans of action were created when the districts first formed and those plans include the construction of several more watershed dams.

“I think the Marmaton has 66 dams planned and built 25,” he said. “Mill Creek has 40 and built 18.”

Young said the structures can cut down on flooding and are also built for storage of sediment.