In the News
Daily Herald, March 14, 2009
Work beginning on new flood control levee
Local officials from across the region donned hard hats and picked up shovels Friday during the groundbreaking ceremony for a $26 million levee along the Des Plaines River.
About 50 people gathered to listen to various officials talk about the long process of winning approval for construction of Levee 37 in Mount Prospect and Prospect Heights.
Republican U.S. Reps. Mark Kirk and Peter Roskam and Democrats Sen. Dick Durbin, state Sen. Susan Garrett and state Rep. Elaine Nekritz were among those who lauded the project in a series of speeches before the groundbreaking ceremony.
"These floods in this area caused great hardship and led to great heroics," Durbin said. "There were people who just came out here and unselfishly sacrificed time and again to fill the sandbags, to try to save the homes and the businesses and try to minimize the damage and evacuate people who otherwise might not have been able to get out. We knew this (project) had to be done."
The flood control project is expected to prevent the destruction of Mount Prospect and Prospect Heights homes and businesses whenever the river floods during major storms.
A main flood wall will be built along the east side of River Road and Milwaukee Avenue, between Euclid Avenue and Palatine Road. It's expected to be completed in about two years.
The project took years to get off the ground as many agencies had to sign off on it, including the Army Corp of Engineers, Illinois Department of Transportation, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and the Forest Preserve District of Cook County.
Mount Prospect Mayor Irvana Wilks said at times she wondered if the project would ever be built since the levee required so much collaboration between groups.
"And then there came a day when it seemed that it was really going to happen," Wilks said. "Different agencies were coming together and everyone was sort of buying in."
In addition to the levee, three pump stations with 20,000 gallons per minute pumping capacity will be built.
About 600 residences and dozens of businesses will be protected, officials said.
According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the river caused a record amount of damage in 1986 when it was estimated the flooding caused $35 million in damage to about 10,000 residences and about 260 businesses. More that 15,000 people were evacuated and seven people died in the flooding.
There were also was significant flooding following torrential rains in August 2007 and less severe flooding following Hurricane Ike-related rains in September 2008.
The flooding in 1986 prompted the Army Corps of Engineers to study flood mitigation measures along upper Des Plaines River watershed. Six projects in Cook and Lake County were identified.
The Cook County projects include Levee 37, Levee 50 in Des Plaines, which was completed last year, and Big Bend Lake expansion in Des Plaines, which officials hope to get funding for this year. All three utilize Cook County Forest Preserve District property.
Currently, negotiations also are underway between the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and the Wheeling Park District for the Buffalo Creek reservoir project to store water held back by the levees in part of the 100-acre Heritage Park in return for major improvements to the park.
An earlier plan to use Lake County Forest Preserve District property for that project fell through when the design the district wanted for the project was deemed too expensive.