Tools

National Guard Builds Center to Stop Flooding

by KREX News Room
by Courtney Griffin

Story Created: Aug 31, 2012 at 6:51 PM MDT

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2012 at 7:26 PM MDT

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.- When it rains in Grand Junction, it pours, at least sometimes. Now, the Colorado Army National Guard is doing something about it.

After years of planning and many floods, the National Guard's 947th Engineer Company is helping to build a stormwater detention facility.

"It's what our engineers do, whether it's here, stateside, or whether they're deployed, so it's just a great opportunity," said Maj. Gen. Michael Edwards, Adjutant General for the Colorado National Guard.

The dam will be 27 feet in height, holding around 250 acre-feet of water near the Grand Junction Regional Airport. "The storms we have are short, but they're high intensity storms, so they release a lot of
water over a short period of time," said Tim Moore, public works and planning director with the city.

The primary focus is to prevent flooding along Leach Creek, which starts north of the airport and runs through town until reaching the Colorado River near Redlands Parkway.

Grand Junction's mayor is all too aware of the potential threat. He's lived off of Leach Creek for over 40 years. "The water has gone over 26 and H roads; I've seen a lot of damage Leach Creek's done," said Bill Pitts, the mayor of Grand Junction.

The project also gives soldiers an opportunity to conduct critical individual and collective training through the Innovative Readiness Training program. "I always tell people that this is your National Guard, they're citizen soldiers. They're a part of your community and to me it's America's hometown military, so we're very proud of them and
we hope the community is very proud of them also," said Edwards.

The project is expected to finish up in May 2013.

Officials say the funding will be kept to a minimum thanks to our soldiers.

Add a comment

Name:

Comment: 1000 Characters Left

KREX - News, Weather, Sports for Grand Junction | Montrose | Glenwood Springs - Coverage You Can Count On and its affiliated companies are not responsible for the content of comments posted or for anything arising out of use of the above comments or other interaction among the users. We reserve the right to screen, refuse to post, remove or edit user-generated content at any time and for any or no reason in our absolute and sole discretion without prior notice, although we have no duty to do so or to monitor any Public Forum.

Most Popular
This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled. Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.
News Channel 5 Weather