Officials to review Eagle Creek flood basin proposal

Officials from the Maumee Watershed Conservancy District, Defiance, will publicly review plans for the proposed Eagle Creek flood basin for the first time in Hancock County on June 28. A public hearing on the proposal will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Old Mill Stream Centre, 1017 E. Sandusky St., on the Hancock County Fairgrounds. COVID-19 safety protocols, including social distancing and face coverings when required, will be followed. The meeting most likely will focus on a preliminary report on the basin's function developed by Stantec engineering. The basin, which is expected to range in size from 600 to 800 acres, would be dry most of the time. However, the basin could hold enough stormwater to drop floodwater 1.5 to 1.7 feet on Findlay's Main Street during a 100-year storm, like the flood of August 2007. Once constructed, the basin would cost about $100,000 annually to operate and maintain. The city of Findlay may assume responsibility for maintaining the basin. Property tax assessments have also been discussed. Construction of the basin would require the vacation and relocation of Township Road 49. Two residences will need to be acquired and demolished. Three additional residences may need to be acquired and demolished depending on the final selected basin configuration. According to the study, once operational, the basin would remove about 2,000 acres, or 1,950 parcels, from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's regulatory floodplain. The basin is estimated to have a positive cost-benefit ratio of 1:2.2, according to the engineer's report. The ratio means that for every dollar spent to build and maintain the basin, it will provide $2.20 in benefits in damages avoided. Those damages could be to homes, buildings, infrastructure or to nonphysical damages, such as loss of income or transportation. The cost of building the basin is now estimated at $70.3 million, with the conservancy district planning to seek state funds to pay for its construction. Stantec's reports can be found at www.hancockcountyflooding.com. It was a negative cost-benefit ratio that ended the U.S. Army Corps' 10-year, $10-million study of flood control along the Blanchard River at Findlay more than five years ago. The corps had proposed the construction of a diversion channel that would have routed floodwater from Eagle Creek to the Blanchard River on the west side of Findlay. The public hearing comes at the insistence of Hancock County Common Pleas Court Judge Reginald Routson, who represents the county on the Maumee Watershed Conservancy Court. The 15-judge panel oversees the scope of work undertaken by the conservancy district. The conservancy serves Allen, Auglaize, Defiance, Fulton, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Lucas, Mercer, Paulding, Putnam, Shelby, Van Wert, Williams and Wood counties. Routson successfully argued to table the court's decision on the basin until at least July 9, when the court is expected to convene to consider the conservancy district's request to proceed with the construction of the basin. The district asked for its "scope of work" to be broadened to include the basin at the court's annual meeting on May 7, but Routson argued against it. He said there are still too many questions and concerns about the project among his constituents and argued that the public has a right to have its say on the issue. He then offered to organize Friday's meeting. The court voted 9-5 to table the motion to allow more time for public input, with Allen, Auglaize, Defiance, Lucas, Putnam and Van Wert counties opposed. Hardin County was not in attendance. Planning for the basin has continued, including the preliminary study of the project by Stantec engineering, despite pushback from the judges during the court's annual meeting in 2020. The meeting was delayed until September due to the pandemic. In 2020, the court panel questioned the conservancy district's authority in spending $11.35 million in early 2020 for the purchase of 416 acres of property at the proposed basin site in Hancock County's Eagle Township. That's about half the land needed for the proposed basin. Money to pay for the property was taken from a $15 million grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Another $15 million was awarded to the project by the state of Ohio, as part of the capital budget, in December. Discord among rural landowners over a Stantec proposal to build three rural floodwater basins prompted the conservancy district to abandon the plan in August 2018. It wasn't until June 2019 that the conservancy district agreed to proceed with a single, large basin in Eagle Creek, after being convinced by the Blanchard River Solutions Group that there were landowners willing to sell their properties. According to documents secured by The Courier, Blanchard River Solutions Group signed a purchase agreement with former Hancock County Commissioner Steve Oman on Dec. 10, 2018, setting the purchase price of 264.329 acre-farm at $27,000 an acre. That amount was upheld by subsequent appraisals of the property, and three additional properties, conducted nearly a year later. The Courier was only able to document the per-acre purchase price earlier this month. The Blanchard River Solutions Group is a private entity, and is not subject to the same open meetings and records laws as a public entity, making information about the land purchases difficult to verify. The conservancy district also refused to release the purchase price, citing executive privilege due to ongoing land negotiations. Hancock United for a Better Blanchard, or HUBB, a group of about 100 rural landowners in Hancock and Putnam County that advocates for flood-control measures that are not invasive to rural areas, recently released a statement opposing the basin's construction. HUBB also said Eagle Creek only accounts for about 15% of Findlay's watershed, and the basin will not protect the city against flood "every time." However, conservancy district officials have said Eagle Creek accounts for 25% of the floodwater in the watershed during a 100-year storm. EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story reported the wrong date for the hearing. The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. June 28. Grant: 419-427-8412