CBS11 I-Team: Inspections Missed On Local Flood Control Projects
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GARLAND (CBS11 I-TEAM) - As record rainfall sent rivers and lakes into flood stage again in North Texas, CBS11 discovered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers missed regular inspections on some local flood control projects. In Garland, a creek that flooded dozens of homes in May 2015 went without inspections for nine years.
Duck Creek is one of nearly 40 flood projects across the state that the Corps Fort Worth District is responsible for inspecting every two years. A 2011 annual report to Congress shows as many as a dozen projects went four years without an inspection.
The Corps was not aware of any instance where missed inspections led to more problems with flooding.
A 2009 letter from the Corps to the City of Fort Worth said inspections were suspended due to funding constraints. Earlier missed inspections, the Corps told us, could have been due to low staffing, or other projects taking priority.
"In some cases we had employees that maybe deployed overseas to another project," said Brian Phelps, the assistant chief of the operations division. "We had additional parties within our projects that we are responsible to operate and maintain."
Phelps said the 24-hour surveillance required on North Texas lakes this summer was an example of something that might take priority over scheduled inspections.
As part of the partnership when the projects are built, cities are required to maintain the projects. Many of them are natural drainages that have been widened, straightened or reinforced with concrete. In Garland, Michael Polacek with the city's engineering department said city crews still walked Duck Creek after every major storm looking for problems with debris and erosion.
The Corps said it has enough staff now and it has caught up with inspections on all the projects. The last inspection on Duck Creek in August 2014 found only minor maintenance issues for the city to take care of.
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