FRANKLIN
Memories of the 1999 and 2006 floods that devastated downtown Franklin and parts of neighboring areas are still fresh in the minds of residents there. As a result, their concerns with repeated flooding has prompted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to launch a study of the water resources in the Chowan River Basin.
The study will assist the Corps to develop an early warning system by using an integrated system of rainfall, stream and water quality gauges, according to Mike Mansfield, the Corps Norfolk district's chief of planning and policy.
Franklin Mayor Jim Councill said his city and the counties of Southampton, Greensville, Sussex, Surry and Isle of Wight provided $45,000 and federal funding covered the rest of the funds for the $90,000 study.
The Chowan River Basin includes the Blackwater, Meherrin and Nottoway rivers. The basin's 200,000 residents have seen record-level flooding five times since Hurricane Floyd swept through in 1999.
The Corps views the project as the first step toward a more comprehensive basin study that will address flood risk management, erosion, navigation and environmental needs within the watershed, according to Mansfield.
U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes, who urged the House of Representatives to authorize a comprehensive study in 2007, was in Franklin on Tuesday to announce the study.
Councill applauds the study as a step to assessing the challenges of living within the Basin.
"To do nothing would be irresponsible," he said. "We have to probe and ask some questions to see what we can or cannot do."
Phyllis Speidell, (757) 222-5556 or phyllis.speidell@pilotonline.com
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