New Web Site Features Texas Flood Protection Information

Temple, Texas - March 6, 2007.  If you’ve never heard of a flood water retarding structure, you are probably not alone. But not being able to define it does not mean you haven’t benefited from one or from several.

Flood water retarding structures are just that – structures, usually dams, which temporarily hold back flood waters, reducing the threat and intensity of flooding. For the past 60 years, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has worked with sponsors across Texas to construct nearly 2,000 floodwater retarding structures in 145 watershed projects in the state.

The agency just developed a new website that provides detail on all of these projects, including completed work, planned structures, project benefits, and rehabilitation of older dams. To see if you have a watershed project nearby or learn more about the program itself, visit www.tx.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/watersheds/index.html.

The website also provides a detailed history of the watershed program that started in the mid-1930s when Congress began looking at ways to complement the downstream flood control program of the Corps of Engineers. It passed flood control acts in 1936, 1944, and 1954 and assigned responsibility of the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Program to the USDA Soil Conservation Service, now the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

“The watershed program has provided flood protection for Texans for many years,” said Steve Bednarz, NRCS assistant state conservationist for water resources. “Our new website shows the location of watershed projects and how they have benefited the state.”

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