FEMA criteria stalls East Side levee accreditation: What's next for Poplar Bluff?

The Drainage District 12 Levee, colloquially known as the East Side Ring Levee, is still in certification limbo as the Federal Emergency Management Agency found the partial package submitted Sept. 20 lacking critical data. The battle for FEMA levee accreditation has been ongoing for more than a decade.

The barrier protects the East Side of Poplar Bluff and provisionally grants a flood map rating of 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.”

Without certification, however, the East Side will be designated Zone AE, a special hazard flood zone.

At the preliminary flood map meeting in November, FEMA Hydrologist Rick Nusz presented exactly that. If the levee does not gain accreditation, residents and business owners on the East Side will need to purchase costly flood insurance. Todd Sittig of Mathis and Associates Engineers submitted a partial certification package on Sept. 20. FEMA sent back their reply on Jan. 3.

The letter states, “FEMA has determined that the criteria outlined in 44 CFR 65.10 has not been fully addressed.”

It goes on to list the discrepancies found with Sittig’s partial package and absent data. Issues include a lack of a map showing the levee’s extent, unidentified base flood elevations and available freeboard, unlisted locations of drainage structures, no statement on the minimum freeboard following settlement of the structure, and more.

“It is the responsibility of the community or other party seeking recognition of a levee system as providing flood hazard to provide data and documentation,” the letter explained.

Presiding Butler County Commissioner Vince Lampe maintained the levee remains strong and safe. Nevertheless, he pointed to a Community Development Block Grant the county applied for in the amount of $2.2 million to improve the levee to FEMA standards.

Sittig informed the application is still in its preliminary stages.

“We’re working on it,” he added. “It should be pretty straightforward.”

Sittig remained confident the levee would be certified ahead of the flood maps becoming official. The process for finalizing the flood maps could take until July 2027, according to Nusz.

“Those are very conservative dates. It could be sooner,” he stated at the November meeting.

Sittig said the work on the levee could be completed as soon as this summer.

The FEMA letter affirmed, “If you are able to submit the required data and documentation and FEMA finds it acceptable, we will consider the (levee) as providing flood hazard reduction in a future mapping project.”