U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

National Park Climbing Stewards Educate Climbers About Conservation And Etiquette

With the rise in the popularity of climbing in the region, the national park hired some ambassadors to educate climbers about climbing etiquette, conservation and safety.

The National Park Service is hosting two climbing stewards at the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve and at Summersville Lake.

With the rise in the popularity of climbing in the region, the agency hired some ambassadors to educate climbers about climbing etiquette, conservation and safety.

Chief Ranger Frank Sellers said these stewards have worked to educate more than 5,000 park visitors since this program started six months ago.

“These folks, you know, are climbers themselves, and they’re passionate about their sport,” Sellers said. “And you know, they’re passionate about the parks, and about where they climb and about protecting rock climbing areas for the future.”

The stewards will also be helping climbers bridge the gap between climbing indoors and climbing on natural rock.

“People bring dogs to the park, people have to use the restroom,” Sellers said. “You know, if you’re in a climbing gym, that’s easy. If you’re in a natural setting that’s maybe more difficult. You got to have a plan.”

The climbing stewards are hosting “climber coffees” at popular trailheads on Fridays and Saturdays in the national park and Sundays at Summersville Lake through the fall.

They will also be visiting popular climbing spots and continuing conversations with climbers about conservation. The program is an alliance between the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, the New River Alliance of Climbers and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Mountain Valley Pipeline Moves Forward In Debt Limit Bill In Congress

The bill includes a requirement that the project receive its final Corps of Engineers permit within 21 days.

The long-stalled Mountain Valley Pipeline is likely to move toward completion within weeks of passage of a bill in Congress.

Late Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill to raise the nation’s borrowing limit.

The bill includes a requirement that the Mountain Valley Pipeline receive its final Corps of Engineers permit within 21 days.

The bill must first pass the U.S. Senate. And even though both of Virginia’s U.S. senators have vowed to block the pipeline’s inclusion, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said their effort is unlikely to succeed.

“With the 21-day Corps of Engineers requirement,” she said in a briefing with reporters Thursday, “I think you’ll see people beginning to work on this by the first of July.”

The natural gas pipeline has been a top priority of both West Virginia’s U.S. senators.

Environmental and community groups oppose it because of impacts to water quality and the production of natural gas through hydraulic fracturing. They’ve had some success blocking it in federal court, but the bill cuts out the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has delivered consistent rulings against the project.

“Including the Mountain Valley Pipeline in the debt-limit deal is a dangerous precedent and potentially disastrous development for people, wildlife, and water along the project’s route,” said Mustafa Santiago Ali, executive vice president of the National Wildlife Federation.

In the House, Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., voted for the bill that includes it. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., voted no.

“From completing the Mountain Valley Pipeline to cutting government spending,” Miller said in a statement late Wednesday, “voting ‘yes’ on this bill solidifies a conservative win for the American people.”

Mooney, who is challenging Gov. Jim Justice to be the Republican U.S. Senate nominee next year, saw it differently.

“This bill does not have comprehensive permitting reform to support America’s energy production,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “West Virginians are counting on me, a proven conservative, to hold our government accountable.”

Federal Court Voids Mountain Valley Pipeline Stream Permit From DEP

The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has voided the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s clean water certification for the project.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline has been dealt another setback in federal court.

The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has voided the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s clean water certification for the project.

The builders of the 300-mile natural gas pipeline will have to start over. It needs the permission of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to cross streams and wetlands, and it cannot receive that without the DEP’s certification.

The project is behind schedule in part due to multiple legal setbacks.

It lacks authorization from the U.S. Forest Service to cross the Jefferson National Forest on the border between West Virginia and Virginia because of an earlier ruling from the Fourth Circuit.

The pipeline is a top priority for state leaders, including U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito.

Last month, Republican U.S. Rep. Carol Miller introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to finish the pipeline.

Milton To Receive Federal Funding To Help Complete Flood Prevention Project

The money comes from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help support the town’s Lower Mud River Flood Risk Management project. It would build a flood wall that would span approximately one and a half miles along the river starting from east Milton and ending at an embankment about 500 feet south of U.S. Route 60.

The town of Milton is receiving more than $190 million in federal funding for flood prevention in the area.

The plan is for the wall to be an average of 19 feet high and 26 feet at its tallest. Construction is scheduled to begin this year, according to the project’s webpage.

The webpage states the completed flood wall would “provide protection to over 600 structures including residences and businesses, along with public structures, personal property, and critical infrastructure.”

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV, wrote a letter of support for the project last May.

“The Lower Mud River Flood Risk Management Project will bolster flood protection by constructing a new levee and river channel, which will also move much of the town out of the flood plain, helping spur economic development and changing this flood plain from a 27-year flood plain to a 250-year one,” Manchin said in a release announcing the funding.

The project comes as a response to decades of flooding in the town, including a “once in a hundred year flood” that hit the town earlier this month.

A study of flooding in the area was completed in 1993 by the Natural Resource Conservation Service. Responsibility for the action plan was transferred to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1996.

Also announced separately was another $35 million from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act set to go towards upgrading water, wastewater and stormwater systems statewide.

Senate Passes Capito Bill That Advances Flood Control Projects

The Water Resources Development Act passed by a vote of 93-1.

The U.S. Senate passed a bill Thursday that advances flood control and water infrastructure projects in West Virginia.

The Water Resources Development Act passed by a vote of 93-1.

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the senior Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, helped secure the bill’s passage.

It advances the Lower Mud River flood control project in Milton and increases the federal funding formula to 90 percent from 65 percent.

It supports flood control studies in the Kanawha River basin and for the city of Huntington. It also will expedite the completion of the Bluestone Dam rehabilitation project.

“We know that natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes can strike at any time and have devastating consequences for our communities,” Capito said.

Severe flooding devastated parts of eastern Kentucky this week and threatened southern West Virginia. Southern West Virginia experienced severe flood damage in 2016.

The bill authorizes U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects that protect coastlines and inland communities vulnerable to flooding.

January 28, 1937: Worst Recorded Flooding Occurs Along the Ohio River

On January 28, 1937, the Ohio River crested in Huntington nearly 20 feet above flood stage. Days earlier, it’d crested at the same level in Parkersburg and 10 feet above flood stage in Wheeling.

The Ohio River had always been prone to flooding. Just 10 months before, the Ohio had hit record levels at Wheeling. However, nobody living between Huntington and Parkersburg had ever seen anything like the 1937 flood, which was brought on by melting snow and 19 straight days of rain. It devastated communities along the entire 1000-mile stretch of the Ohio. A million people were driven from their homes between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Cairo, Illinois. Just in West Virginia alone, the flood claimed nearly 400 lives and caused a half-billion dollars in damages.

The disaster changed how the federal government manages rivers. In the years following the flood, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built flood-control lakes and reservoirs and dozens of flood walls, including ones at Huntington and Parkersburg.

The 1937 flood remains the worst disaster ever to hit the Ohio River Valley and the highest flood ever recorded in Huntington and Parkersburg.