NOTN- Juneau Mayor Beth Weldon is travelling to Washington, D.C., this week to press federal officials and Alaska’s congressional delegation for funding and coordination on the city’s long-term solution to recurring flood risk from Suicide Basin, even as the capital city grapples with ongoing winter weather.
“Hopefully we get more money, and we’ll work with some of the agencies to coordinate our enduring solution.” Weldon Said, “So first we’ll talk to our delegation, Representative Begich, Senator Sullivan and Senator Murkowski.”
Weldon said she plans to meet with Alaska’s Delegation to seek immediate geotechnical funding through congressional spending, while also pursuing longer-term financial support through federal agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“We’re actually going to talk to the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army, and that’s the Civil Works branch, just to make sure that the Secretary and the Army Corps of Engineers are aligned with our project, and we are also talking with the Forest Service and the Office of Budget Management to make sure our path forward is aligned.” Said Weldon.
City leaders and project partners have unanimously selected the Lake Tap option as Juneau’s enduring solution to flooding concerns, Weldon said. The approach was chosen because it is the fastest to implement, the least environmentally disruptive and the most cost effective among the alternatives considered.
“It’s cheapest, as in under a billion dollars, not by much, but all the rest of them were way over a billion dollars.” Said Weldon, referring to other options considered, like an enclosed dike, “And now, even though it’s snowing like crazy, we have to look at our flood, our next big event, which is flooding.”
