People observe the deteriorating Arkansas River levee in the Lollie Bottoms area near Conway on Friday, June 7, 2019. ( Arkansas Democrat-Gazette / Thomas Metthe

State officials recommend sending $8.8 million to 14 entities for repairing levees damaged by Arkansas River flooding last spring.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimated it would cost a total of $105 million to repair levees along the river and to get them up to Corps standards. About $10 million of that will be covered by the Corps for the levees it owns. More will be covered for levees within its Rehabilitation and Inspection Program, but many of the damaged levees were not part of the program.

Arkansas Natural Resources Commission staff members have recommended funding projects in nine counties, including six projects in Pulaski County. At least one project will be for a property owners' improvement district that doesn't have a levee but where a marina retaining wall needs repair.

Details of the projects were unavailable Friday. The nine-member commission will consider the recommendations at its Jan. 16 meeting in the Wyndham Riverfront hotel in North Little Rock.

The commission doesn't typically fund levee projects. It approves dozens of loans and grants -- mostly loans -- to water and wastewater utilities annually, but levee and drainage district funding is comparatively rare. None receive funding in a typical year.

Last spring's historic floods along the Arkansas River prompted Gov. Asa Hutchinson to create a task force to examine ways to improve the state's levees and to ask the Legislature to set aside $10 million for levee repairs.

While the commission is tasked with reviewing the applications for the $10 million, it was unclear Friday if the $8.8 million recommended was part of that.

The recommended amounts vary widely. The smallest award is up to $91,000 for the McLean Bottoms Levee and Drainage District No. 3. The largest is for $1.6 million for the Riverdale Harbor Municipal Property Owners Improvement District No. 1 in Pulaski County.

It's not clear what the $1.6 million would go toward.

District board member Larry McAdams said he knew about the district requesting Federal Emergency Management Agency funding but wasn't "familiar" with the district applying for levee funding. The district, which oversees land in Little Rock's Riverdale neighborhood, doesn't have a levee. The harbor and marina suffered damage during the flooding.

"I have not had any dealings with those folks, at all," McAdams said of the commission. "I know nothing about their deal."

The only other award that's over $1 million would go toward repairing the Dardanelle Drainage District levee. About $1.5 million would help rebuild the part of the levee that washed out during the flooding and to fill in a nearly 30-foot hole that those rushing waters created, said Mark Thone, county judge for Yell County.

Unlike a separate $263,000 recommendation for Yell County for the Petit Jean levee, the county won't provide a local match for the Dardanelle district project.

"It was so massive," Thone said. A match wasn't feasible.

The Arkansas Department of Transportation is paying $1.1 million for a contractor to repair Arkansas 155, which runs parallel to the levee.

Some of the work may overlap, Thone said.

"We may not need the whole $1.5 million, but we won't know until the bids come in," Thone said.

The Dardanelle Drainage District had not been actively maintaining the levee, which fell into disrepair years ago, preventing it from being eligible for the Corps' Rehabilitation and Inspection Program. That meant repairs to the levee were ineligible for Corps engineering, design or funding assistance. Instead, the levee is eligible for only what federal and state grants may be available, which could still be pricey, depending on the amount of damage to be repaired.

Levees that were not installed by the Corps are eligible for help with restoration from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service's Emergency Watershed Protection program. Such levee districts must come up with 25% of the cost, and the money cannot be used to improve the levee beyond it's pre-flood condition or for operation or maintenance.

Other districts recommended to receive funding include Conway County Levee District No. 6, Pope County Levee District No. 1, Fourche Dam Island Drainage District No. 2, Old River Drainage District, Perry County Levee District No. 1, Plum Bayou Levee District, Riverdale Levee Improvement District, Roland Drainage District of Pulaski County, Tucker Lake Levee and Drainage District, and the Tupelo Bayou Irrigation and Watershed District.

SundayMonday on 01/05/2020