County receives grant for drainage expenses
By BENJAMIN C. SHARP bensharp@journal-spectator.com

Wharton County's drainage study is getting a helping hand from the Texas Colorado River Floodplain Coalition.

County officials said Friday the coalition has approved a $10,000 grant for expenses associated with the project's use of Linear Infrared Digital Area Radar.

With LIDAR, an airplane "saturates" the ground with radar to determine precise slopes of the land for a more complete understanding of topography and drainage patterns. Halff Associates, the engineering firm hired by the county for the study, earlier said LIDAR will be far superior to what's available from the United States Geological Survey.

"Existing USGS information was only accurate to the nearest five-foot level. This will be accurate to the nearest two-foot area," Halff's Eric Scheibe earlier said.

The price tag of such information is not cheap, however. Precinct 1 Commissioner Mickey Reynolds said this week the county has already spent more than $170,000 on this portion of the study alone.

That made obtaining the TCRFC grant even more critical.

"That will help us just a little bit more. I feel good about that," Reynolds said.

An additional benefit of the LIDAR is that it will allow future developers to have a better understanding of the area's drainage - and to act accordingly.

"It will be a good tool," Reynolds said.

The county's study will take an unprecedented look at the area's major rivers and creeks in order to develop means of reducing future flooding. The study is expected to be completed by Spring of 2009. Cost is $5 million.