first on decorahnews.com: Iowa DNR decision on Menard's floodplain fill permit could come before the end of the year

If Menard's asks for a permit to fill the floodplain behind the Walmart supercenter in Decorah, it should get an answer from the Iowa DNR before the end of the year.

Iowa DNR Flood Plain Management supervisor Lori McDaniel tells decorahnews.com that, to the best of her knowledge, such an application hasn't been filed yet, but it typically takes 30 to 60 days for her agency to review such applications.

Here's how the DNR's procedure works, in general terms.  If a business files an application for a floodplain development permit with the DNR, the first question to be asked is what standard the applicant must meet.  In the case of a permit application involving a building, projects are divided into three categories: low damage potential, high damage potential and maximum damage potential.  Buildings with "maximum damage potential" are hospitals and other important buildings.  These buildings must be built on a site that is one foot above a 500-year flood.  Buildings with "high damage potential" must be protected to the level of one foot above a 100-year flood.  That would be the category for the Menard's application.

Once the permit application is made, DNR engineers would calculate the floodplain using river gauge and rain gauge data.  A previous development in the Freeport floodplain by Walmart won a DNR permit, but McDaniel says every application is taken on its own merits, without regard to previous decisions.  The floodplain mapping, she says, uses "a snapshot in time" to look at current conditions.

The permit review will also consider excavating plans and retention ponds in addition to the building, basically looking at the entire site plan.  The tentative Menard's property is near the Upper Iowa River, which has "protected river" status, but McDaniel says the only time that comes into play is if a permit asks for changing the riverbed route.

When a permit application is made, says McDaniel, it is the engineers who make the call on whether to approve the permit or to deny it.