The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is performing a high-level assessment of Tulsa’s levee system.
A screening last year found it’s at one of the highest risk levels in the nation. USACE official Jaime Watts said the next step is having experts brainstorm every possible threat to the system.
"Could the flood wall fail? Could the pump station fail?" Watts said. "Could somebody drive a truck into the levee and cause something to happen? Probably not, but we'll come up with all these ways that this could possibly fail and then decide which ones are credible."
The USACE will then prioritize those threats. According to the USACE timeline, a ranking of possible risks based on data and expert opinions will be done around August, with a final report expected by mid-fall.
The final report won't, however, be the next time local officials hear anything.
"I think we can share a lot of good information transparently with you as we move through this," Watt told local officials on the Arkansas River infrastructure task force. "I would think that what you see in August from us is going to be very, very, very detailed, and even before that, I think we'll be able to share other good things."
Watts did deliver some good news. She said trail systems can be built on the levees.
"We need to make sure that it doesn't change the federal interest in the project and that it doesn't damage the project, but, essentially, if it doesn't do any harm, go for it," Watts said.
Watts did recommend county officials wait to do any trail building until after extensive repairs are finished.
Funding work on Tulsa’s levee system may be the tougher problem to solve. District 12 Levee Commissioner Todd Kilpatrick said instituting a special tax assessment on homeowners within the system’s 800-acre area probably won’t work.
"It may look small on a map, but that's a vast levee system," Kilpatrick said. "And if we look at the demographics of the people that are sitting behind this thing, you have some of the least capable and most vulnerable people that I think that are in Tulsa County."
Part of the problem is the number of tax-exempt entities within the floodplain.
"If you're tax-exempt, you're not on the ad valorem taxes — you don't pay anything. You get the protection, or the level of protection, as miniscule as we're saying it is right now, but you don't pay anything," Kilpatrick said. "I've got a $17 million Tulsa Tech sitting in my front door that pays absolutely $0 because they're tax-exempt."
The last time funding was needed, the county passed a special assessment on businesses within the floodplain to get federal help.
"If we do get a cost-share with the federal government, we show that we've got skin in the game here locally," Kilpatrick said. "So that's a futuristic thing down the road, but it's a strategy we have to have."
In October, Kilpatrick told local officials the system needs $34 million worth of work to meet FEMA standards. Otherwise, flood insurance rates will go up.
USACE's risk assessment will not provide a cost estimate for repairs.
