Berms or not, it’s a flood plain in Canyon County
The consensus among water experts seems to be that the part of Idaho I call home is an eternal desert, treated now and then to a decent rainfall and usually delivering enough snow in the mountains to irrigate our parched land and grow crops.
We’ve been officially in a drought for years, and any concern about the quantity of water in Southwest Idaho was that we didn’t have enough.
Until this year. Heavy snowfall both in the valley and in the mountains. More predicted for the week end. Now we’re talking about possible flooding. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we have a very high water table in this part of the state, especially west and south of Caldwell where you can hit water at five or six feet or less when drilling a new well.
Apparently it has been a whispered secret that the City of Caldwell is sitting on top of so much water that the city put up a flood-mitigation berm at the 9th hole of the city golf course, according to my source, Paul Allredge, former chair of the city’s planning & zoning commission and Caldwell’s unofficial guardian.
It was pure coincidence that this week new maps drawn by FEMA showing a much broader area at risk of flooding was released to the community. Since Caldwell was built along the Indian Creek tributary to the Boise River, the new map affects this city and could sink the city’s plans for revitalization of downtown Caldwell. To all of this, Caldwell Mayor Garrett Nancoles calmly informed Jamie Huff, FEMA spokesperson who delivered the presentation this week, “What you are about to present will scare the holy, whatever, out of Nampa and Caldwell.” This is according to Kendet Murrant and Byran Dooley, reporters for the Idaho Press Tribune.
I don’t know who’s scared, but if I understand rules about waterway construction correctly, the new maps pretty much shut down the mayor’s dream of a beautiful downtown area on Indian Creek because federal law does not allow new construction or substantial building repairs in the floodplain.
JG
Tags: Caldwell water, FEMA, FEMA maps southwest Caldwell, Idaho floodplain, Mayor Nancolas
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