EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth in a five-part series looking at the historic issue of flooding in Richland County, its impact and potential ideas in dealing with the problem.
MANSFIELD — Ohio watershed conservancy districts have been around since before the 1930s when a man named Arthur E. Morgan took it upon himself to find a solution to flood-prone areas, specifically the Dayton area. He was motivated by the devastation that happened there in 1913.
Once Morgan envisioned a solution, he formed a board, chaired it and named it the Tennessee Valley Authority. It became a flood control system that would influence several similar programs throughout the United States. This was the origin of what is known today as conservancy law. The system has funded levies and dam structures that prevent communities like Dayton, Miami and other counties throughout Ohio from becoming devastatingly inundated when rain relentlessly falls.
Morgan went on to become the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District’s first Chief Engineer in 1933. There, he helped formulate the Official Plan, ratified by the conservancy court in November 1934. The plan included the construction of 14 dams and reservoirs within the 18-county region.
Today, MWCD manages 54,000 acres of public water and land, with 10 lakes and multiple streams and rivers. It is the largest watershed conservancy district among the 20 in Ohio.
“When the flooding system (MWCD) was built, it was constructed in order to greatly mitigate the risk of flooding and loss of lives,” Chief Engineer Boris Slogar explained. “The system has been very successful to that end. So much so that the Army Corp of Engineers has estimated $10 billion of damages have been averted because of the system.”
But how?
Assessments.
Individual property owners who live within the watershed districts are charged anywhere from $10 to $15 per year, also known as an assessment, Slogar explained. That money is then pooled and used to employ engineers trained to maintain the water systems built to reduce flooding.
The MWCD, under an amended assessment plan initiated in 2009, collects $9 million to $10 million in assessment costs per year. This is based on collecting assessments from 500,000 residents. According to its website, 96 percent of those assessed pay $12 annually.
Those millions of dollars are used to maintain the 14 existing dams.
But only the communities that opted to be part of the watershed districts can benefit from the flood control system. Although parts of Richland County are within MWCD’s boundaries, county officials opted out of assessments in the 1930s. In other words, Richland County residents do not pay into an assessment, thus denying the citizens the opportunity to reap its benefits.
But there is hope.
Under conservancy law, flood-prone communities like Shelby and Bellville have the opportunity to form subdistricts under the Muskingum WCD — which is exactly what they have decided to do.
In 2011, former Shelby mayor Marilyn John, along with the city’s Floodplain Manager Joe Geis, reactivated a dormant Black Fork Subdistrict. According to John, the subdistrict had been inactive since the 1960s. According to conservancy law, subdistricts have the authority to assess its property owners just as the Muskingum WCD.
John, who is now a Richland County Commissioner, expects the subdistrict to glean an amount of assessments similar to a neighboring subdistrict just southwest of Akron: the Chippewa Subdistrict.
Chippewa earned a little over $373,000 in assessments in 2015. After one-third of it went to two part-time engineers, office rent and other overhead expenses, $256,000 went to maintaining its eight dam systems sprawled throughout a 188-square-mile rural area.
According to Slogar, the Muskingum WCD is currently working on a preliminary design of a flood control system along the Black Fork of the Mohican River. The study has come at no cost to Shelby. And once finished with the study, which will include a cost, Shelby’s city officials and conservancy court judge Phillip Mayer will vote on whether the project is worthwhile.
Bellville Mayor Darrell Banks supports the Watershed Conservancy District model. So much so, that he decided to form the Clear Fork Subdistrict in 2014.
“We’re in the researching stage right now,” Banks said of the Clear Fork Subdistrict.
