Hurricane-torn residents in western North Carolina try to guide recovery despite feeling voiceless at times

Debris removal in western North Carolina is messy business.
(FEMA photo)

After Hurricane Helene pummeled western North Carolina in September 2024, it left a trail of wrecked buildings, broken plumbing, downed electrical lines, flooded homes, rancid water, and mud everywhere. For area residents still working to restore their lives and land, their post-disaster experience can be summed up in a word: Messy.

"Helene brought extreme flooding and landslides to southern Appalachia, killing 108 people and causing $60 billion in damage in western North Carolina alone," report Katie Meyers and Izzy Ross of Grist. "It also reshaped rivers and landscapes, littering them with everything from garbage and trees to cars and homes."

Residents working to restore their neighborhoods sometimes land in the crosshairs of "contractors and subcontractors, officials at every level of government, and an alphabet soup of agencies," Meyers and Ross write. Crews and public authorities can show up unannounced, leaving community members unsure of who is in charge of what.

Debris removal has posed multiple challenges for residents trying to protect the land and its wildlife. Meyers and Ross explain, "Because contractors are paid by the weight of waste removed or by the linear foot of ground covered, there can be a struggle to balance expediency and ecological care," Grist reports. The massive amount of trees and limbs that needed removal from the region's waterways "sparked arguments about what constitutes debris, what ought to be cleared, and what might be better left alone."

Transylvania County may have avoided a direct assault from Hurricane Helene, but the Army Corps "earmarked some $66 million for debris removal there," Meyers and Ross add. County officials have been frustrated by the lack of collaboration. Transylvania County Manager Jamie Laughter told Grist, "The county has not had a role in directing the contractors’ work, assessing regulatory compliance or how they go about their work because that falls to [the Army Corps]."

Scientists who live in the community have also felt ignored. "When Hans Lohmeyer, a biologist with Conserving Carolina, tried to help [the Corps], he was rebuffed," Grist reports. "He showed Grist photographs of riverbanks littered with crushed elktoe mussels, which are endangered, and stumps of what he said were healthy trees."

Farm, energy and construction groups sue to block new federal definition of 'waters of the United States'

As expected, the Biden administration's new definition of "waters of the United States" under the Clean Water Act is being challenged in a federal court.

Farm, energy and construction groups filed suit in the Galveston division of the Southern District of Texas, likely a favorable forum for their argument that the new definition will apply to "staggering range of dry-land and water features—whether large or small; permanent, intermittent, or ephemeral; flowing or stagnant; natural or manmade; interstate or intrastate; and no matter how remote from or lacking in a physical connection to actual navigable waters." The suit claims "Plaintiffs’ members will constantly be at risk that any sometimes-wet feature on their property will be deemed WOTUS."

The suit was filed by the American Farm Bureau Federation its Texas and Matagorda County affiliates, the American Petroleum Institute, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, Associated General Contractors of America, Leading Builders of America, the National Association of Home Builders, the National Association of Realtors, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the National Corn Growers Association, the National Mining Association, the National Multifamily Housing Council, the National Pork Producers Council, the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association, the Public Lands Council, and the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association.

The suit notes that the U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in a case that could determine what wetlands are “waters of the United States,” and complains that the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers issued the new definition "rather than await the decision in that case, which will almost certainly provide additional guidance as to the meaning of WOTUS."

Army Corps starting program to help repair unsafe dams

Eight years ago, Congress created a fund for federally backed loans to repair risky dams. This month, the Army Corps of Engineers finally published proposed regulations for the program, reports David A. Lieb of The Associated Press.

"The Corps’ National Inventory of Dams lists more than 92,000 structures across the U.S., most of which are privately owned," Lieb notes. "The safety of the nation’s dams has garnered increased public scrutiny in recent years, in part because of high-profile failures that forced the evacuation of thousands of residents in Michigan and California."

Lieb notes AP's recent census of more than 2,200 dams in poor or unsatisfactory condition that are classified as high-hazard, meaning failure "likely would unleash a flood killing at least one person," he writes. "That figure was up substantially from a similar AP analysis three years earlier."

The average U.S. dam is 61 years old, and many pose more risk than when they were build because of downstream development. Also, "A changing climate with intense rainstorms has strained some dams beyond their original designs," Lieb reports. "Maintenance also has been deferred, often because dam owners lack the money to pay for it. The Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimates it could cost nearly $76 billion to rehabilitate the almost 89,000 dams owned by individuals, companies, community associations, states, local governments and other entities besides the U.S. government.

The new federal loan program, which makes more than $7 billion in guarantees available, “puts a pretty good dent in the existing need,” Aaron Snyder, interim director of the Corps’ Water Infrastructure Financing Program, told Lieb, who notes, "Most states don’t have grant or loan programs specifically targeted for repairing dams." Congress authorized the Corps program in 2014 but didn't fund it until December 2020, Lieb reports: "It got a big funding boost from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed by President Joe Biden last November."

U.S. judge refuses to narrow ruling to Keystone XL pipeline

"A federal judge in Montana on Monday upheld his ruling last month that canceled an environmental permit for the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline and threatened other oil and natural-gas pipeline projects with delays," Timothy Gardner reports for Reuters.

District Judge Brian Morris ruled in April that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers didn't adequately comply with the Endangered Species Act in 2017 when it renewed a general permit that allows dredging work on pipelines through bodies of water. Morris also said letting construction proceed could do serious harm to protected species and habitats.

The corps asked Morris to limit his April 15 ruling to the Keystone XL permit, but Morris refused. "The ruling does not block construction of Keystone or other pipelines, but without the permit to do dredging work many oil and gas projects could be delayed," Gardner reports.

At the heart of the issue is the corps' streamlined permitting process, which Morris said doesn't allow enough input from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on risks to endangered species and habitats, Ellen Gilmer reports for Bloomberg Law.

"In Monday’s order, he agreed to narrow his April ruling to allow the Army Corps to use the fast-track permitting process for non-pipeline construction work and routine activities on existing projects," Gilmer reports. "But Morris declined to scale back his order to focus only on Keystone XL, and he refused to freeze his decision while the Trump administration and pipeline backer TC Energy pursue an appeal."

Corps OKs plan for keeping Asian carp out of Great Lakes; it's more expensive than first draft and might not be effective

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel maps show drainage near Chicago, including the Little Calumet River, where an adult Asian carp was found in June 2017, and Lake Calumet, where environmental DNA of two Asian carp species was found recently.

The Army Corps of Engineers will ask Congress for $778 million for its latest plan to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. "The strategy calls for installing devices such as noisemakers, air bubbles and an electric barrier to deter the fish," The Associated Press reports. "Scientists say if Asian carp become established in the Great Lakes, they could out-compete native fish."

The devices would be installed at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam on the Des Plaines River near Joliet, Illinois, AP reports: "It's considered a chokepoint where Asian carp and other invasive species could be prevented from migrating into Lake Michigan." The Corps already has an electric barrier farther upstream, past the northernmost set of locks on the canals connecting to Lake Michigan.

Silver carp (top) and bighead carp, species whose DNA was
found. (Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee photo)

The plan is much more expensive than a $275 million draft plan that the Corps announced last year, and it might not be effective. Brandon Road is 140 miles south of Lake Michigan, but the fish may already be on their way to getting established between the dam and the lake. "Researchers with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have found environmental DNA of two species of carp in a lake that's just a few miles from Lake Michigan," Tracy Samilton reports for Michigan Radio.

"Environmental DNA comes from things like fish scales. It's an indicator that the fish could be present," Samilton reports. "The eDNA that was recently found came from samples from Lake Calumet." In June 2017, an adult carp was found in the Little Calumet River, in the same area.

Dozens of levee breaches in Midwest expose a 'Swiss cheese' system of flood protection, aging and under threat

The Missouri River breached this levee near Fortescue, Missouri. (Photo by Tim Gruber, The New York Times)

Hundreds of miles of Midwest levees have been overwhelmed by floods, "leaving 'Swiss cheese' infrastructure and reigniting a flood-control debate," The New York Times reports.

"With dozens of costly breaks across Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and nearby states, the surging waters have left large areas without even cursory flood protection," Mitch Smith and John Schwartz report. "And with the fear of more floods in the coming years — and perhaps even the coming weeks — many people said living and farming near the water might not be viable much longer without major changes."

The reporters note that the levees are old, "subject to uneven regulation and, in many cases, never designed to withstand the river levels seen in the last decade. . . . The situation has been exacerbated by wetter rainstorms, which are expected to worsen over time and have been attributed to climate change. . . .The recent flooding — which has devastated farms, roads and Native American reservations — has pushed to the foreground a debate that has raged quietly for generations. It boils down to this: How should the rivers be controlled, who should make those decisions and how much protection should be given to those most vulnerable?"

The levees are mainly managed by local levee districts, which "often do not coordinate or even follow the same rules," the Times reports. "With increased flooding in the past few years, the levees are being tested more frequently than ever before, straining the finances and expertise of some of those districts. The levee situation has become so grave that the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the country’s levee system a D grade in 2017, suggesting $80 billion in investment over 10 years."

Corps will raise water level in largest reservoir in Eastern U.S. to test second massive dam repair

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hopes to increase water levels this summer in Lake Cumberland, the largest reservoir by volume in the Eastern U.S. at normal pool, Bill Estep of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. Leaks at Wolf Creek Dam caused the Corps to significantly decrease water levels in 2007. Repair of the dam is the Corps' top construction project, costing $594 million. (Herald-Leader photo by Charles Bertram: Lake, dam and Cumberland River)

The Corps expects to finish repairs this spring ahead of schedule, which was originally set to finish in summer 2014. Local officials are hopeful that increased water levels this year will bring tourists back after six seasons of lower visitation. If the repairs pass review by third-party engineers, the lake will first be raised to about 20 feet below normal pool, allowing the agency to test the repairs. If the dam performs well at that level, the Corps will raise the lake to normal pool, 723 feet above mean sea level. For the Corps' news release, go here.

The Corps made an emergency decision to lower levels after engineers said Wolf Creek Dam was at high risk of failure. Estep notes the dam was built in the 1940s in terrain riddled with caves and underground fissures, through which water seeped under the mile-long earthen part of the dam. Another expensive repair job in the 1970s proved to be incomplete. (Read more)

Asian carp are still moving toward Great Lakes; canal barrier's voltage to be increased

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will increase the voltage on an electric fence designed to keep Asian carp from traveling into the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River system. Preliminary tests of the fence's power showed the voltage was not high enough to deter the invasive fish from entering the lakes.

Paul Quinlan of Enviropnment & Energy News reports that the three-part barrier will be placed in a Chicago shipping canal to keep the fish from entering Lake Michigan, where a carp was spotted last year. Lawmakers and environmentalist are worried the fish could "wreak havoc on the bottom of the food chain and ultimately destroy the $7 billion sport fishery" in the Great Lakes.

Maj. Gen. John Peabody, commander of the Corps' Great Lakes and Ohio River Division, told Quinlan the voltage will be raised this fall, but will not harm people. The Corps also reported that monitoring has shown small Asian carp are not swimming close to the barrier. (Read more)

Rural areas sacrificed to prevent city floods

The term "national sacrifice area" is sometimes applied to a place that is or might be drastically changed by government-regulated human activity. The accuracy of that appellation varies, but there can be no question that it applies to the Atchafalaya River basin in Louisiana, which the federal government is flooding today to eliminate the real risk of catastrophic flooding in Louisiana cities on the Mississippi River, such as Baton Rouge and Katrina-devastated New Orleans.

This is not the first time that rural people and communities have been sacrificed for the preservation of urban places. Earlier in this flood, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blasted levees in Missouri to prevent the flooding of Cairo, Ill., at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. But the phenomenon goes back much farther. (Los Angeles Times map by Lorena I. Elebee)

"There’s a long history here, one that reveals big mistakes by leaders of the conservation movement during the 20th Century. They believed that wise use entailed controlling the nation’s rivers by building levees and draining wetlands to create farmland and promote other development," Timothy Collins, assistant director of the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs at Western Illinois University, wrote recently in the Daily Yonder. "The technological solutions of the past made money for many of our forebears and salved their consciences in terms of their treatment of the Earth. But they also left a legacy of problems for the present. Use trumped wisdom, and now we pay for it." (Read more)

For today's coverage from The Advocate of Baton Rouge, click here; from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, here; and from The Advertiser of Lafayette, to the west of the flood zone, here.

Preliminary tests show electric barriers won't keep small Asian carp out of the Great Lakes

The electric barrier designed to keep rapacious Asian bighead and silver carp out of the Great Lakes probably needs more voltage to stop small fish that may eventually make their way to the man-made connection of the lakes' watershed and the Mississippi River system in which they live, preliminary research indicates.

"Federal officials said Friday that lab testing found the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal's electric dispersal barriers . . . were effective for large fish 5.4 inches or longer," the Chicago Tribune's Katherine Skiba reports. "However, higher electric power levels might be needed to immobilize small Asian carp about 2 to 3 inches long, they said." The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the closest small carp are 116 miles downstream of the barrier.

The tests were done at a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lab in Vicksburg, Miss. "Because of the lab setting's physical limits," Skiba reports, officials said "more field research near the fish barrier system is needed." (Read more)

Price for fixing Corps' most troubling dam will go up again to handle problem at critical juncture

In November we reported that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said a new strategy was needed to fix leaks in its most problematic dam, the one impounding Lake Cumberland in Southern Kentucky. The new method will cost more money and take longer to complete, Bill Estep of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. The lake has been drawn down to relieve pressure on the dam, which normally impounds the largest volume of water in the Eastern United States.
The limestone bedrock under Wolf Creek Dam, above, has cracks and caves that allow water to seep through. The area of concern is where the earthen section of the dam wraps around the concrete portion (in distance at upper left). "The original plan was to drill a line of large holes down through the earthen part of the dam and into the limestone foundation beneath it, then fill the holes with concrete to create a wall, sealing off seepage channels in the foundation," Estep writes.

Because that plan isn't working as well as the Corps hoped, the French and Italian contractors will build a concrete wall inside the earthen dam by boring a thick steel casing into the ground, then putting the concrete inside the casing. That will "provide more support in the holes and guard against making seepage channels worse during the construction process," Estep writes. The Corps did not release a revised estimate for the cost of the project or completion date but admitted both would likely go up. "One early estimate of the cost to fix the dam was $317 million. That had climbed to $584 million before the change in construction methods," Estep writes. "A key contractor predicted at one point that the project would be done by summer 2012, and perhaps sooner, but it appears that date will be pushed back." (Read more)

Corps changing methods for fixing leaky dam

Methods for repairing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' most closely monitored dam have been changed, probably delaying the project and the return to normal level of Lake Cumberland, which normally has the largest volume of water impounded in the Eastern United States. Wolf Creek Dam is on the Cumberland River in Southern Kentucky.

French and Italian contractors for the Corps are installing a concrete curtain in the earthen portion of the dam to stop leaks caused by the erosion of underlying karst limestone. Work was stopped late last winter when movement was detected in the earthen portion near the concrete portion. In September, the Corps said work would resume soon, but today The Times Journal of nearby Russell Springs reports that the Corps has changed its construction techniques in the troublesome area, which will require a new contract, new equipment and probably more time and money.

"A six-month study showed the movements were not the result of deep-seated sliding of the embankment, but rather shallow movements attributed to several other causes. . . . The Corps will negotiate contract modifications over the next few months, officials said. The contractor will begin to procure the necessary equipment and casing which will be fabricated and mobilized to the site over a period of five to eight months," The Times Journal reports. For more background, go here.

Lake Cumberland dam repair work to resume soon

Repairs on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' most closely monitored dam will soon resume now that the reasons for movement in the earthen portion of the dam have been determined, reports The Times Journal of nearby Russell Springs. A concrete curtain is being installed in the earthen portion to stop leaks caused by the erosion of karst limestone under the dam, which impounds 101-mile-long Lake Cumberland. For more background, go here.

UPDATE, Nov. 18: The Times Journal reports that the Corps has changed its construction techniques in the troublesome area, the earthen portion of the dam that adjoins the concrete portion. "A six-month study showed the movements were not the result of deep-seated sliding of the embankment, but rather shallow movements attributed to several other causes," the newspaper reports. The change probably means that repairs to the dam, and return of the lake to its normal water level, will be delayed. "the Corps will negotiate contract modifications over the next few months, officials said. The contractor will begin to procure the necessary equipment and casing which will be fabricated and mobilized to the site over a period of five to eight months," The Times Journal reports.

Booms and berms offer only partial protection from Gulf oil-well blowout

Booms and berms, the main strategies to protect marshes and beaches from the oil-well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, are getting mixed results and may be even less effective as tropical storms enter the gulf, April Reese of Environment & Energy News reports from Venice, La. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo)

"For weeks, workers have encircled barrier islands in the Mississippi River Delta with floating containment booms -- long, linked sections of PVC fabric -- designed to keep oil from reaching the marshes, with mixed success," Reese notes. "More recently, Louisiana officials are undertaking a new project to construct 6-foot-high sand berms on the seaward side of barrier islands fringing the delta to protect sensitive shorelines, fish nurseries and other wildlife habitat further inland. But with such large volumes of oil spreading through the Gulf -- between 12,000 and 25,000 barrels continue to spew each day from BP PLC's damaged well 50 miles offshore -- many experts doubt whether such efforts will be effective. . . . And last week's beginning of hurricane season only increases the odds of more oil reaching land. . . . Even with hundreds of miles of booms and berms in place, oil will continue to reach land, and experts say there are no clear answers for how best to clean up oil-soaked areas."

"If we have a tropical storm that really starts to break the oil up, we would have to ... prioritize, putting booms in one area but not another," John Anderson, a professor of coastal geology and oceanography at Rice University in Houston, told Reese. "We don't have enough booms to stretch from Louisiana to south Florida. ... "This is a very serious catastrophe, and I don't think even professionals have grasped the sheer magnitude of this event." That's one reason we call it a blowout, not a "spill." (Read more, subscription required)

Army engineers' boss visits troublesome dam

The boss of the Army Corps of Engineers paid a visit this week to the agency's most-monitored dam, after detecting shifting and suspending repairs in the area where the dam's earthen section wraps around its concrete part.

Jo-Ellen Darcy, "newly appointed by President Obama" as assistant Army secretary for civil works, toured Wolf Creek Dam, which impounds 101-mile-long Lake Cumberland on the Cumberland River in Southern Kentucky, reports John Thompson of The Russell Register. "Asked whether she had concerns over the safety of the dam, she said, 'It’s not concerning, I think it’s being cautious.'" (Read more)

"Instruments indicated that the work was causing movement within the largest cave that is below that area of the dam," reports Greg Wells of The Times Journal, the other Russell County weekly. "Cracks in the blacktop of the roadway above that area of the dam have been widening slightly and that added to concerns." (Read more)

Corps of Engineers cutting trees on levees, getting opposition from landowners and outside experts

"The Army Corps of Engineers is on a mission to chop down every tree in the country that grows within 15 feet of a levee," out of fear that the roots could undermine the flood-prevention structures and in response to criticism after Hurricane Katrina, reports Cain Burdeau of The Associated Press. "But environmentalists and some civil engineers insist the trees pose little or no risk and actually help stabilize levee soil."

Burdeau reports from Columbia, La.: "Thousands of trees have been felled already, though corps officials did not have a precise number of how many will be cut. ... The saws are buzzing despite the outcry from people who say the trees are an essential part of fragile river and wetland ecosystems. ... Experts outside the corps say a tree has never caused a U.S. levee failure." The corps says trees caused a dam to fail in Georgia more than 30 years ago, and "also wants to get rid of trees for safety reasons. A treeless levee is easier to inspect and repair during a flood." Larry Larson, executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, based in Madison, Wis., told Budreau, "If you're going to have a levee, you have to be able to maintain a levee and make it safe."

Sometimes, the engineers back off. In Columbia, hundreds of sycamores, live oaks, elms, pines, cedars, magnolias and crepe myrtles surrounding an 18th-century French colonial estate and plantation were marked for the chain saws, but the corps finally agreed to let the local levee district cut only a few dozen. (AP photo by Kita Wright: John Youngblood on the levee in front of his home on the plantation.) In California's Central Valley, "The corps sought to clear oaks, cottonwoods, willows and other vegetation from 1,600 miles of levees," AP reports. "State wildlife officials complained that the policy would destroy habitat, and residents in Sacramento and elsewhere objected that it would have turned rivers into little more than barren culverts. The corps eventually dropped the idea." (Read more)

For the corps' list of "unacceptably maintained" levees, click here. For more on the corps' levee safety program, click here.