West Virginia NRCS Respond to Utah’s Assistance Call

Submitted by Tom Tamasco

In January 2005, Washington County, Utah, experienced severe flooding that occurred due to heavy winter rain showers combined with snow pack run-off. The devastating floods caused the loss of approximately 25 homes and one life. Several bridges were destroyed and miles of utilities were displaced or washed away.

The Utah NRCS responded with damage survey report teams and a request for federal EWP Program funding. Assistance was requested from NRCS by Washington County. In March of 2006 West Virginia NRCS responded to Utah’s call for assistance by detailing 15 employees to the St. George, Utah area for 30–60 day work assignments. St. George is located in southwest Utah close to the Arizona and Nevada state lines. Because of the limited availability of long term lodging 12 of our employees stayed in Mesquite, Nevada and commuted to St. George. The 38 mile drive encompassed driving across three state lines and crossing one time zone.

Our task was to assist with the construction phase of the work which consisted mainly of rock stabilization walls with some debris removal. While daily duties could vary it was mainly involved with the tracking of rock from the quarry to the job site then the placement of the same in the stability wall. Some employees operated scales that weighted and documented the loaded rock trucks leaving the quarry; other employees received tickets from the truck drivers entering the job site that they documented. Employees acting as inspectors oversaw the placement of the rock and the construction of the wall and others were project engineers with duties such as: making partial payments, attending meetings with the contractors and county representative, keeping up with any necessary documents associated with the project and offering assistance to any of the other employees working on the project.

At the beginning of this work detail, 8 to 10 contracts were still active on the Virgin and Santa Clara Rivers and on Ash and La Verkin Creeks. Contracts were typically of 30 to 45 days in duration with some limitations associated with permits from Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and the Army Corps of Engineers.

While our group only worked on the construction phase of this process, it was obvious that a project of this size could have only have been accomplished by a lot of hard work by the Utah NRCS staff along with the employees of Washington County and other agency personnel. The work consisted of long hours— however the experience of working in a team environment with our fellow Utah NRCS employees was very rewarding. We were treated well.

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