Flood Protection

There is a lot of effort put into flood protection every year.  Citizens of Clinton are very fortunate to have a good levee system.  With that comes a lot of monitoring and maintenance.

The City is considered to be at flood stage once the river level reaches 17 feet.  We currently put the flood gates in at the 9th Avenue North boat ramp when the river reaches the 17.5-foot level.  This is done to alleviate flooding north of the boat ramp, along Joyce’s Slough.  We used to install the flood gates at 16.5 feet, but with the construction of the stormwater pump station we can now wait until 17.5 feet.

Once all the gates for the 17-foot level are closed we do not have a lot more to do until the river reaches roughly the 18.5-foot level.  At this time there are more gates that need to be closed. Once the river reaches that level we start monitoring the levee.  That usually entails driving the 8-mile-long levee twice a day looking for boils or water in places where it does not belong.  This is always done in a City of Clinton vehicle clearly identified by the sticker on the door.  These inspections usually take place in the early morning and around 6:00 p.m. in the evening. Beside the levee, we are monitoring the storm water stations.  The levee does a great job of keeping the water out but we also have to be able to get the water out of the City when it rains.  During the levee inspections we are also monitoring our infrastructure.

There will be other occasions that you will notice city vehicles driving on the levee.  Our crews might be there fixing a problem or there might be a supervisor driving the levee just to see if any problems have developed.  Also, once a year the Corps of Engineers conducts an annual levee inspection at which point in 

We the citizens of Clinton are very lucky to have the levee system that we have. The levee is in good shape but to keep it that way it does take preventive maintenance, so please be patient.