Certification of Poplar Bluff’s East Side levee appears uncertain as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and local officials dispute data and standards. Without certification, the area faces a potential spike in insurance costs.
This is a process that has been ongoing for more than a decade and may be drawing to a conclusion, but the outcome remains uncertain.
Completion of the certification could take another three years, but federal officials say the only opportunity to change designation maps will be a 90-day appeal period. The dates for this have not been set.
Federal officials contend they have been waiting on paperwork from Butler County for a decade, while local officials say they didn’t have the documentation necessary to answer FEMA’s questions about the East Side levee.
The outcome of this certification process could place large sections of the East Side in a higher flood risk category, equaling large increases in flood insurance costs or new requirements to purchase flood insurance.
Poplar Bluff Housing Authority has said a change in designation could place more than 73% of its properties in a flood zone at an annual flood insurance cost of $2 million.
What is the East Side levee?
The barrier is colloquially known as the “East Side ring levee,” but the proper term is the Drainage District 12 levee. The zone protected by the barrier, encompassing the east side of Poplar Bluff, is currently designated as Zone X.
According to FEMA, Zone X is, “an area determined to be outside the 500-year flood and protected by levee from 100-year flood.”
The levee was completed in 1956 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and diverts flood waters east to the Palmer Slough.
According to documents submitted to FEMA by Butler County’s engineers, Mathis and Associates, a court order created Drainage District 12 to oversee the levee. That order appointed the Butler County Commission to serve as the members.
This arrangement stands to the present day.
Levee status in flux
Eastern District Commissioner Don “Butch” Anderson stated FEMA set about raising the standards for levees across the country following the disastrous failure of the protective barriers in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
As a result of this effort, the District 12 Levee was de-certified. However, FEMA granted provisional accreditation for two years in 2009, according to the Mathis report.
The provisional status expired in 2011. Under pressure from the East Side potentially being designated a flood zone, then-Presiding County Commissioner Ed Strenfel sought a grant from the Delta Regional Authority through the Ozark Foothills Regional Planning Commission. The funding was to help improve and recertify the East Side levee.
Levee problems and improvements
The drainage district received a grant for $163,950 for the purpose of recertifying and repairing the levee. The district agreed to allocate $16,500 of its own funds, according to the grant’s final report narrative.
District 12 accepted a bid from Mathis and Associates for $61,728 for an engineering study for the re-certification in 2011.
By March 2014, Mathis and Associates submitted a complete CFR 65.10 evaluation report. The lead engineer for the project was Todd Sittig. Sittig gave the levee a clean bill of health.
“This report and the certification issued as a result is a technical finding that there is a reasonable certainty that the levee system will protect the leveed area from the 1% annual chance flood, based on the condition of the system at the time the determination is made,” he wrote in 2014.
He clarified the certification process only covers the 1% annual chance of flood.
FEMA’s reply
FEMA replied in July of the same year, pointing to several items that it considered to be discrepancies.
In a letter addressed to Strenfel, FEMA Chief of Risk Analysis Richard Leonard stated the Mathis engineering study, “did not demonstrate that the levee has an additional 1 foot of freeboard above the minimum required within 100 feet in either side,” of several structures.
Freeboard is the distance between the high watermark and the top of the levee.
Leonard noted FEMA was in the process of a new hydrological study of the Black River at the time which would affect Mathis’ ability to submit a new package. However, he listed several more items that he considered deficiencies with the report.
Leonard pointed to a lack of an officially adopted operation and maintenance plan. Additionally, he stated the report was missing analysis of embankment protection from erosion, foundation seepage, settlement and interior flooding.
Drainage District 12, under current Presiding Commissioner Vince Lampe, contracted RL Persons Construction for $62,000 to conduct repair and upgrade work on the levee in 2017 using funds leftover from the original grant.
Lampe confirmed the remaining money from the grant has since expired.
No response from county, 2014-2024
Neither Butler County nor Mathis and Associates have provided additional correspondence on the matter to FEMA since 2014, said Hydrologist and Project Officer Rick Nusz of FEMA Region VII in mid-September.
However, Sittig said in a recent interview the impetus was on FEMA to send and finalize hydrological data.
In response, Nusz asserted, “They have everything from us that we do provide... The study is completed. It’s the mapping that is being worked on.” He said the study was updated in October 2021 and the data was made available at this web address: https://fema.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=80c7bdb10b5343bbb2d....
Sittig countered the data presented in a July 2021 FEMA Region VII flood risk review meeting by the contractor STARR II was incorrect. He added the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers adamantly argued against the FEMA numbers.
Nusz acknowledged this and pointed to the fact STAR II updated the numbers by October 2021 and provided the data to Sittig in February 2022.
When asked what he did with this data, Sittig replied, “I sat on it because it wasn’t complete.”
Sittig said FEMA has not completed the river study while Nusz maintained they have.
Nusz stated the lack of reply from Mathis and Associates was unconventional.
“There is certainly a lengthy process, but to get no response, it has not been typical,” he noted.
Nusz said FEMA does not send correspondence to applying entities reminding them to complete the certification.
Documents submitted
Sittig submitted a partial package to FEMA on Sept. 20, contesting the main discrepancies and providing details regarding the levee’s maintenance plan.
“FEMA prefers to have a full submission,” Sittig stated. “We were waiting to do a full submission based on the new flood maps.”
With his assertion that no such finalized data has been provided, he was resigned to submitting a partial package. The partial submission is missing the completed freeboard analysis contingent on what the county has said is absent or unreliable FEMA data.
Regarding that data, Nusz stated, “We have no intentions to change it.”
He promised he would review the partial submission, but agreed he prefers a complete package.
“They will have everything they need to certify the levee. Whether they accept that information or not, I can send them stuff until I’m blue in the face.” Sittig said of the partial package.
He remained adamant FEMA would not deny the partial submission.
“There was a comment that it may be partially accredited like it has been over time,” Sittig said.
Nusz strongly rebutted this point.
“It’s not true, and I never said that. Provisional accreditations are only a one-time offer,” he replied.
As of the writing of this article, no determination has been made on the status of the application. According to Nusz, FEMA will hold a second flood risk review meeting to present the new working maps to local stakeholders in October or November.
Contingent on what comments the agency receives, the county and the drainage district will have a 90-day appeal period to contest the findings of the new flood map.
Consequences of certification issues
Nusz reaffirmed the East Side would be presented as a high-risk AE zone in the absence of levee certification. Zone AE is defined as, “the area that will be inundated by the flood event having a 1-% chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.”
In layman’s terms, AE is a Special Flood Hazard Area.
Following the 90-day appeal period, FEMA will release the preliminary maps. These are subject to a 30-day public comment period before becoming official flood maps.
Nusz estimated the entire process from the upcoming meeting to the final officializing of the maps could take until July 2027.
“Those are very conservative dates. It could be sooner,” he stated.
While nearly a three-year span, Nusz emphasized the only window of opportunity to change the map will be the 90-day appeal period.
“If they’re in AE, those property owners who have insurable structures with a federally backed mortgage would be required to buy flood insurance,” he reiterated.
Impact to property owners
In a 2021 letter to Nusz, Poplar Bluff Housing Authority Executive Director Darrin Taylor warned the impact could be devastating if the working maps become official.
“Removing the Zone X designation of the areas protected by the levee will place 73.22% of our total housing portfolio in a flood zone,” Taylor stated.
The housing authority could be responsible for up to $2 million annually in flood insurance alone. The homes and businesses in the affected area would also need to purchase flood insurance at a rate of .5% up to 2% of the total insurable value, according to FEMA.
Eric Schalk, son of the owner of Gamblin Lumber on the East Side, expressed concern over the potential impact to an already depressed area of the city.
“The East Side is not in the best shape as it is,” he commented. “There’s serious concern.”
While the Gamblin facility is no longer financed and would not be required to purchase flood insurance, Schalk stated not everyone is in the same position.
“The flood insurance is the least of our concerns,” he added.
Schalk raised concern over the integrity of the District 12 barrier if FEMA considered it unsatisfactory. He said, in the event of a levee breach, “We’re looking at a loss of millions of dollars.”
Schalk hoped the responsible authorities would do what was needed to be done to protect the East Side from sliding further into decay.
“It could return to prominence,” he asserted.
Tracy Edington, owner of the Money Mizer gas station, affirmed, “Our insurance will go up tremendously.”
In his opinion, the integrity of the levee has been in question for over 20 years. Edington expressed frustration with state, local, county and national officials for not resolving the certification question promptly.
“For some, it will be a huge impact,” he said.
Like Schalk, Edington recalled a time when the East Side was much different.
“At one time, this was the place to be,” he clarified. “We’re proud of the East Side. My family has made a good living over here.”
City, county weigh in
Former Poplar Bluff City Manager Matt Winters stated while still in office and prior to Sittig’s Sept. 20 preliminary submission, “I’ve had more than one conversation with the engineer, just submit something.” He added, “It does make me frustrated.”
Winters was the original grant writer for the project when he worked for OFRPC. He warned the blight on property values and the economic development of the East Side would be severe if designated a flood zone.
“It would further depress an already depressed area of Poplar Bluff,” he remarked. “The holdup is with the engineer.”
Winters noted the city’s flood zone buy-back program would not apply to the newly zoned properties. He explained the buy-back program is funded by grants and can only be used for sites that have already been flooded.
Nevertheless, Winters emphasized the levee still provides protection for the East Side regardless of the FEMA certification. He added he is not concerned with the timeline.
Lampe took a similar tack regarding the levee’s integrity.
“It is certified by the Corps (of Engineers),” he asserted. “It’s one of the best levees we’ve got.”
Corps of Engineers opinion
Lampe clarified the levee is enrolled in the Corps’ Rehabilitation and Inspection Program. He pointed to a new river hydrological study conducted by the USACE Little Rock District on the Black River dated March 6, 2023.
According to Lampe, the study shows the levee as providing adequate protection and freeboard. In the original 2014 discrepancy letter, Leonard acknowledged the authoritativeness of USACE data.
However, Nusz clarified that FEMA certifies the levee, not the Corps of Engineers. He maintained that the available data from both FEMA and the USACE is enough to conduct the work for a complete CFR 65.10 package. Lampe assured residents the county commission and District 12 have been actively pursuing a resolution.
“We’ve had meeting after meeting after meeting,” he stated. “We’ve got to know our flood elevation before we can tell what our levees are doing.”
Lampe further asserted FEMA has not contacted the drainage district nor the county commission with the new, finalized data.
He lamented that Richard Leonard, the FEMA representative who wrote the original discrepancy letter and promised new data, may not even still work there. Regardless, this is to whom Sittig’s partial package is addressed.
Lampe further contested FEMA’s claim that no settlement analysis has been conducted. He stated, given the nearly 70-year age of the levee, any settlement that was possible has occurred already.
Waiting
Lampe said the representatives of the USACE agreed with Sittig’s assessment of the situation at a Sept. 19 meeting at OFRPC.
“We’ve got to wait on data,” Lampe said.
He said the USACE river study shows between 4 and 5 feet of freeboard along the whole levee. Lampe assured he has been in contact with Rep. Jason Smith’s and Sen. Josh Hawley’s office to pressure FEMA to provide up-to-date numbers. He expressed frustration over the apparent lack of consistency from FEMA.
“Sometimes I wonder if the right hand knows what the left hand is doing,” Lampe commented.
While sharing the same members as the county commission, he said Drainage District 12 has not been conducting regular meetings as its own entity.
When asked who is ultimately responsible if the East Side gets designated a flood zone, Lampe asserted, “I would say FEMA.”
Sittig gave the same reply.
Contradicting federal opinions
In a delicate and labyrinthine process, Lampe painted the county as being caught between two federal entities contradicting each other.
“We’re dealing with the federal government,” Eastern District Commissioner Anderson remarked about FEMA. “They’re soft in the head.”
Nusz remained confident the data had been provided and contended it is ultimately the responsibility of the county and the drainage district to finish the certification process.
USACE Little Rock Floodplain Manager Jaysson Funkhouser affirmed the Corps does not certify the levee for the purposes of flood maps.
“We don’t have anything to do with FEMA’s certification,” he added.
Funkhouser assured the barrier is in good structural condition, however.
“We are confident in the integrity of that levee,” he stated. “We have not had any issues or problems.”
He noted the structure is enrolled in the USACE’s Public Law 84-99 maintenance agreement, which helps pay for repairs in the event of a breach.
Funkhouser stated contradictions or conflicts between FEMA and the USACE are rare. Regarding Lampe’s claim the two federal entities are contradicting each other, he clarified the agencies have separate spheres of influence.
As opposed to the Corps building standards, “They’re more interested in the height of the levee,” and flood maps, he said.
Funkhouser said representatives of the USACE will be in attendance at the working map meeting, but will only offer input on structural integrity and the Corps’ risk assessments.
He stated the certification process rests on Drainage District 12 and FEMA.
A firm date for the presentation of the working maps has not been set, but Nusz added, “We are continuing to try to coordinate with the levee district and others to get this meeting scheduled in October or November.”
Editor's note: Mathis and Associates engineer Todd Sittig was quoted as saying “I sat on it,” with regards to the data provided from FEMA. Sittig was instead referring to the 2015 data, not the information provided in 2021. The quote, “Whether they accept that information or not, I can send them stuff until I’m blue in the face,” was in reference to those pressuring to have items submitted, not FEMA. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
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