Directors of the Lower Brushy Creek Water Control and Improvement District (WCID) approved engineering agreements aimed at meeting deferred maintenance needs and planning at their most recent meeting.
The group approved a master agreement with M&E Consultants to prepare breach maps for the eight dams in the Turkey Creek basin. WCID general manager James Clarno said the maps would help forecast what would happen downstream should one or more of the dams fail.
“One of the scenarios they will model assumes a full breach,” he said. “This study will see how far and how high the water would go.”
He added that breach maps are critical in develop emergency action plans which are required by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and would be used by local first responders.
The cost of the study is $85,000.
Directors also agreed to hire Freese & Nichols to conduct a complete inspection of all 23 dams in the Lower Brushy Creek region. That study was contracted at $37,000.
Finally, directors approved a cooperative agreement with the Texas Soil and Water Conservation Board for $333,839. That agreement replaces an earlier pact where the TSWCB agreed to participate in the $1.7 million rehabilitation of Lower Brushy Creek Watershed Site #20, which is just east of Thrall.
The
WCID directors meet the first Monday of every other month in the
conference room at the Greater Taylor Chamber of Commerce, 1519 N Main.
The next meeting is set for 7:30 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 6.