USDA to help fix banks of Jackson creek

It's taken almost a year, but some Jackson residents are finally seeing the sunshine after the rain when it comes to fixing an erosion problem that wiped out as much as 25 feet from their back yards last spring.

Three homeowners in the Annwood subdivision are combining efforts with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fix the banks of Williams Creek.

Tonight, the Jackson Board of Aldermen likely will approve authorization for the project, a necessary step that will not cost the city anything other than staff time.

Water tore into the property of four landowners during storms last May that dropped 15 inches of rain in 16 days, including overnight rainfalls of 6 and 4 inches within a week.

Twenty to 25 feet of land was washed away from Richard Combs' back yard, wiping out much of his white fence. In Terry Schroeter's back yard, part of a fence and a large section of a flower bed is gone. A tree was uprooted from Ken and Sherry Inman's place.

"This project is very important because Mother Nature will wash our back yards away if we don't get it done," said Sherry Inman.

Carrying more water

Schroeter said the creek usually overflows its banks about once a year and that some minor erosion has always been a problem. But last year, "The circumstances were just right, or just wrong, for this to happen," he said.

Schroeter and Inman said the creek carries more water than it used to because of the development occurring in Jackson.

To fix the existing erosion problem, the National Resource Conservation Service, a division of the USDA, is funding 75 percent of the construction cost, which has been estimated at $64,740, city engineer Dan Triller said.

The four homeowners involved will split the cost of the rest of the 25 percent. The federal funding is a result of the Emergency Watershed Program.

"The scope of the 2002 storms was severe enough that this area qualified for federal funding," said Mark Nussbaum, area engineer for the NRCS. "This is a legit concern. The Annwood subdivision area suffered severe bank erosion and they're concerned, and rightfully so, that if it continued to erode this way it could reach the foundation of their homes."

Using gabions, riprap

Nussbaum said the NRCS will use gabions -- long, chain-linked box-like structures that hold rocks in place -- to control erosion.

Two tiers of gabions will keep the lower part of the creek bank from eroding.

Because the gabions, which have a life expectancy of more than 40 years, will raise the base of the slope, it will reduce the angle of the slant and prevent the NRCS from having to cut away more land from the back yards.

On top of the incline, the NRCS will put in rock riprap, which will protect the soil from the swift water.

The NRCS will also set up a series of ledges in the stream to direct the water flow away from the creek's curves that take the most abuse during storms.

As a check-and-balance measure, the NRCS requires that all projects be sponsored or endorsed by a not-for-profit organization.

In this case, it was the city of Jackson, which has opened up an escrow account for the landowners to pay for their share of the project.

Schroeter said the landowners are thankful that the government is assisting in the project. He said before he found out about the Emergency Watershed Program, he had construction estimates done that "were hard to digest."

Schroeter found out about the program on the Internet and contacted the NRCS about it.

Nussbaum said the project will start in April and should be finished by early June.

He said the best time to work on such a project is in August when the weather is dry, but the project must begin less than a year after the weather event in order to qualify for the Emergency Watershed Program.

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635