South Iowa News

Monroe County is setting the pace as local leaders seek to improve the county’s ability to monitor streams and forecast flooding.

Monroe County’s Climate Change Task Force recently spoke with representatives of the County Board of Supervisors about equipment purchases and installations that would improve the ability of local authorities to track and report on flood conditions in the future.

The solution would come in the form of a $55,300 package. It would include two weather stations, 16 stream sensors, two roadside detectors and four warning poles with beacons for locations prone to flooding along local roadways.

The National Weather Service (NWS) in LaCrosse would collect and store data from the equipment at no charge, but the equipment would have an estimated annual maintenance cost of $1,300.

There would also be a $1,000 annual bill for an alerting system.

The equipment would be placed in the Little LaCrosse and Kickapoo River watersheds.

The placement of the equipment is meant to provide monitoring of known trouble spots, such as one proposed for Cashton, which sits at the headwaters of the Kickapoo River, West Fork Kickapoo River, Coon Creek and Little LaCrosse River watersheds. The area was hit hard during 2018 storms.

The NWS also revealed the predicted flood outlook for the area to attendees. NWS Service Hydrologist John Wetenkamp had good news about the spring thaw and the expected effect on flooding.

“Our area has experienced an ideal thaw this spring, with warm days and cold nights, slowing down the melt,” Wetenkamp said. “This means that the forecast for flooding on the Mississippi River is now considered minor, as is the forecast for the Kickapoo River.”

Also at the meeting, Vernon County Board Supervisor Mary Henry put forward the question of collaboration among counties sharing watersheds such as the Kickapoo.

“The bigger the watershed being addressed, the better your chances of funding would be,” said Dan Baumann with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. “This is particularly true for watersheds that are already listed as impaired or under a Total Daily Maximum Load plan, and your chances would be better if the system were set up to monitor both in times of flooding but also in times where it is not flooding.”