Announcement: Open Office Hours
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Huntington District (USACE) invites you to participate in open office hours regarding the Lower Mud River Flood Risk Management Project.
The USACE will continue to hold open office hours approximately every two to three months. The next office hours are anticipated to be scheduled for June 2025. Once the date is confirmed, this website will be updated with the date, time and location.
We hope you are available for this outreach opportunity. If you are not able to attend, more opportunities will be available for public input on the Lower Mud River Project with the USACE team. Open Office Hours will continue to be held generally every 2-3 months at Milton City Hall.
If you have any questions, or would like to provide written comment regarding the Lower Mud River Flood Risk Management Project, please feel free to submit your comments or inquiry to the following e-mail address: Milton-FloodProject@usace.army.mil
The City of Milton, WV has a history of flooding dating back to the early 1900’s. Major floods occurred in 1913, 1939, 1978, 1997, 2003 More recent floods have occurred in 2015, 2019, 2021 and February 2023. The flood of record occurred in 1997, approximately eight inches of rain fell on the Lower Mud River basin from February 28
th to March 3
rd. An estimated 360 residences, 80 businesses, and 20 public and institutional buildings, including two schools in Milton, were damaged by flooding. Some residences and businesses along U.S. Route 60 near the river had flood waters 1.5 to 2.0 feet over the first floors. Total damages for the Milton area were estimated to be approximately $23 million (1997 dollars). A reoccurrence of that event is estimated to cause over $53 million in today’s price levels.
The first figure depicts the existing 1% and 0.4% AEP (or 100-year and 250-year) Mud River floodplains for the Milton area.
The second figure depicts the proposed 1% Mud River floodplain with implementation of the Lower Mud River Flood Risk Management Project (*please note this figure does not include a depiction of interior stormwater drainage)
The Lower Mud River Flood Risk Management project would implement measures to reduce risk to life safety, infrastructure, property, emergency response and economic productivity. Annual benefits provided by the project are estimated to be approximately $7.8 million/year. The Lower Mud River Flood Risk Management Project aims to provide flood risk reduction and management to the residences and businesses of Milton. The project is designed to significantly reduce flood risk for most of Milton for up to a 0.4% annual exceedance probability (AEP) flood event. This is the flood level that is considered a 250-level year flood event, which has a 1 in 250 chance of being equaled or exceeded in any one year. The project would provide protection to approximately 600 structures including residences and businesses, along with public structures, personal property, and critical infrastructure.
Background
The need for flood risk management along the Mud River was identified many years ago and the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) completed a study of flooding in the watershed in 1993. NRCS’s recommended plan focused primarily on urban flooding around Milton. Section 580 of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) 1996 transferred the study to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). In 2004, the Huntington District prepared a Draft Limited Reevaluation Report and Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (LRR/SEIS). At that time further implementation guidance was requested from USACE Headquarters and the project awaited further direction.
In 2018, the Bipartisan Budget Act, Public Law 115-123, provided supplemental funding outside of the normal USACE budget. The Lower Mud River FRM Project was identified as a Long-Term Disaster Recovery Investment Plan and received this funding. In 2018, pursuant to the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, the project received funding to validate the original findings from the 2004 Draft LRR/SEIS, complete the design, and construct. The project’s Decision Document and Environmental Assessment was approved in November 2019.
Where We Are/Current Status
The approved study, the 2024 Final Engineering Documentation Report and Supplemental Environmental Assessment (EDR/SEA), summarizes various design refinements considered to minimize potential adverse effects from implementation of the 2019 Selected Plan. The EDR/SEA report describes the various design refinements considered, evaluated, and compared to minimize adverse effects upon the community and considers the environmental, socio-economic, and cost tradeoffs associated with each. The Refined Recommended Plan (RRP) design which most effectively optimizes these tradeoffs is described in detail within the EDR/SEA Report and is the approved plan. The approved plan includes levee alignment, channel modification, floodplain benching, pump station sizing, and mitigation feature refinements. The USACE is currently working on 60% design of the approved plan and construction is anticipated to begin in the Spring of 2027. Real estate acquisition needed for construction is anticipated to resume in 2025.
The Final EDR is integrated with an SEA to evaluate and describe the potential environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic impacts of the RRP (now approved plan) and the No Action Alternative (no Federal project), and serves as a supplement to the 2019 DD/EA pursuant to compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, as reflected in the USACE Engineering Regulation, ER 200-2-2.The Integrated SEA provided sufficient information about the potential adverse and beneficial environmental effects of the Project and proposed mitigation that allowed the USACE Huntington District Commander to make an informed decision to sign a mitigated Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI).
The RRP had been developed to meet the project refinement objective of substantially minimizing or avoiding impacts to the community on the exterior of the levee that were due to an increase in water surface elevation. The approved plan would reduce the impact related to additional real estate acquisitions that were estimated for the implementation of the 2019 Selected Plan. This EDR/SEA focuses on changes to the components since of the 2019 Selected Plan.
The approved plan consists of an approximately 6,800 linear foot earthen levee, and a 1,500 linear foot concrete floodwall, for a total of an approximate 8,400-foot alignment which would provide flood risk management for the City of Milton for a 0.4% annual exceedance probability (250-year return frequency) flood event. The relocated portion of the Mud River would be reduced to approximately 850 linear feet of new stream channel which would impact approximately 1,100 linear feet of the existing Mud River. Two pump stations with ponding areas and a stop log gate closure would be included.
The figures above depict a simplified visual of the features of the approved plan.
The Final Engineering Documentation Report and Supplemental Environmental Assessment is available through the link below:
Lower Mud Final NEPA Document