Bennington Levee Repairs

WASHINGTON, IND. (WTHI) - A southern Indiana county is closing some gaping holes in its flood protection system.

More than a year ago the Bennington Levee in Daviess County gave way flooding thousands of acres of farm ground.

The breech led the county to cut a second hole in the levee to allow the flood water to escape back into the river.

While the repair work on the levee is coming to a close the recovery of the money to fix it still isn't over.

The north breech on the Bennington Levee is now fixed.

To get the land back to where it can be worked took a half-million dollars, months of labor and even more months of litigation and mediation.

Now, crews have moved into the break in the south end of the levee to try and finally close the hole to the river.

The $300,000 project is being fronted by the county.

"We know how we're going to pay for it at this point as far as the south levee," said President of the Daviess County Commissioners Tony Wichman. "We're taking it out of our rainy day fund and riverboat money and that money can be replaced if and when we get a settlement of the litigation."

Fixing a levee is about more than just dumping dirt.

It has to be contoured and packed properly, dried and eventually seeded so that it will hold together.

Officials say they hope to have the hole in the levee fixed by the time the next round of flooding some along, but they say as slow and painstaking as this process is, what's been even more frustrating is putting together the funding.

"It seems like it never ends," said Wichman. "Of course when you've got 4 or 5 parties involved there's always time limitations or date limitations of something like that but, yeah, it's been very frustrating."

While the money issues are still being resolved, officials say at least land owners should be spared the frustration of seeing the area flooded again.

While the drought was not good for crops, it still has lowered the possibility of flooding along the White River.