Much work needs to be done on Decorah's levee system

City of Decorah officials recently toured Wold Park

A fair amount of work will need to be done in order to bring Decorah's levees up to the standards of the U.S. Army Crops of Engineers.

The Crops has given a grade of "unacceptable" to one of the city's levees and a grade of "minimally acceptable" to the other levee.

City officials recently toured the levees after having met with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials earlier to discuss the Corps' report.

City Engineer Lindsay Erdman says there were four major deficiencies in the levees, according to the Corps.  Sewer lines cross the levees in several locations.  The Corps wants the City of Decorah's emergency operations plan to identify when valves on the sewer lines will be closed during flooding situations.  The Corps also says the 40 foot long culverts at 5th Street and Winneshiek Avenue (pictued below) are deteriorating.  City officials will first have a televised inspection of the culverts before deciding whether to replace them or repair them.

Two other problems exist northwest of the Highway 9 and 53 intersection.  The Corps says there is excessive vegetation growth on the levee near the Dry Run diversion channel (pictured below) and some of the stone has come out of the levee walls in that location.

The Corps also highlighted the need to have a 15 foot clearance on either side of the levees.  City officials say that means a lot of the trees in Wold Park (pictured at left) will have to be cut down and a fence near the fairgrounds will have to be removed and a number of power line poles will have to be relocated.

City of Decorah officials are working to correct the situations pointed out by the Corps of Engineers because the levees will be ineligible for federal aid if they are damaged in a flood or storm before the corrections are made.

Fences and power poles are a problem

A fence at the fairgrounds is near the levee

The culverts at 5th and Winneshiek

There is a lot of vegetation in Dry Run Cutoff underneath Highway 52