Teton Co. Awarded $1M FEMA Grant To Reduce Flood Risk

Teton County is getting some help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency when it comes to spring flooding. Properties along Teton Creek in Driggs have been routinely damaged because of stream bank alterations.

“Can I say ‘OMG’ on the camera?” asked Mike Lien, who serves as stream restoration director for the non-profit group, Friends of the Teton River.

Lien said news of a $1 million grant from FEMA to reduce flood risk along the creek was better than his best Christmas morning.

“Many of these homes were at high risk of falling into the stream due to bank erosion,” said Lien.

He said in 1980, a developer began straightening out the creek channel to protect his subdivisions from flood waters, but that only caused more flooding for those nearby.

“The landowners were very nervous,” said Lien.

Landowner Bill Powell said he moved into his Driggs home in 2006.

“When I came here I just fell in love with this place,” said Powell.

He was surprised to find no water authority.

“We were responsible for (maintaining) a section of Teton Creek,” said Powell.

Powell said he and other homeowners grew concerned about liability in maintaining their stretch. So, after years of applications, the flood mitigation grant from FEMA is a step in the right direction.

“It is quite difficult. Weren’t sure if we would get it, but really grateful we were able to,” said Teton County Emergency Management Director Greg Adams.

Lien said work that started in 2009 will be finished thanks to the funds. By early October, he said, work to construct a floodplain will be underway.

“We’re going to go down into this big ditch that the developer created and build a floodplain that’s going to be lower than the original floodplain,” said Lien.

Lien said in 10, 20, or 30 years, no one will know it was ever touched.

But Powell countered that it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. He said there should be more regulations to protect Idaho’s natural resources.

“What the stream wants to do naturally, development is trying to do the opposite, and that’s where problems arise,” said Powell.

That developer, Charles Lynn Moses, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for violating the Clean Water Act.