KIOWA COUNTY
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Conservation Commission (OCC) is providing construction management and financial assistance on a repair project for a compromised flood retention dam in rural Kiowa County.
Rainy Mountain Creek Watershed Retarding Structure #23, located approximately seven miles east of Hobart, was damaged in one of the recent torrential downpours. “We had some erosion on the emergency spillway,” District Conservationist Will Brock said.
Damage to the Site 23 outlet, which is also known as the plunge basin, will be repaired by constructing slopes for the placement of stone riprap and by revegetating damaged areas, OCC Public Information Officer Bryan Painter said.
The commission awarded a $43,690 contract to Fawver Excavation and Dozer Service of Arapaho to perform the repairs. Once the work begins the job should take only about 18 calendar days to complete, commission officials indicated.
The Conservation Commission will pay 25% of the project cost and other 75% will be paid via the Emergency Watershed Protection Program of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Painter said.
Records show Rainy Mountain Creek Site #23 is 53 years old.
Rainy Mountain Creek Site #23 is one of 2,107 upstream flood control dams built in Oklahoma as part of the USDA’s watershed program “to protect homes, businesses, roads, bridges, and other infrastructure, as well as crops, farmland and ranch land,” Painter said. According to the OCC, Kiowa County has 47 of the dams; Stephens County, 63; Harmon County, 14; Tillman and Greer counties, 13 apiece; Comanche and Jefferson counties, 10 each; Jackson County, 4; and Caddo County, 104.