Eagle Creek Flood Basin Project Awaiting Funding

The Maumee Watershed Conservancy District recently met virtually for its annual meeting.

There was discussion about the Eagle Creek Dry Storage Basin project just south of Findlay which is still in the preliminary engineering phase.

Project Manager Steve Wilson says the project is mostly in a holding pattern for now but they could do some additional engineering with the grant money previously allocated.

He says the project is estimated to cost around $60 million but the state has awarded only $15 million in grant money so far.

Wilson believes if it wasn’t for the pandemic, the rest of the grant money would’ve already been allocated and the project would be further along.

He believes the storage basin will have a great impact on flood reduction in Findlay once it’s completed.

“It will reduce the 100-year flood elevation at Main Street by around a foot and a half, and that would be on top of the reductions we’re seeing with the work that’s currently being done along the Blanchard River.”

The 600 to 800-acre floodwater storage basin would be constructed west of U.S. 68 and just north of Township Road 49.