BY SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Glen Beckham is in a race against bulldozers.
As the study manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mill Creek project, his job the next two years is to find a cure for the growing threat of flood damages in northern Hamilton County.
The best solution, he says, is a wetlands in the West Chester area of southeastern Butler County.
The site is attractive because of its abundance of land for a 50-acre marsh in the flood plain and its proximity to Hamilton County.
But there's a problem: Developers have their eyes on the same spot.
"I'm concerned because there is explosive growth in Butler County. There may not be enough land left for wetlands," Mr. Beckham said.
His efforts are part of a Corps of Engineers plan resurrected last fall after studies showed the cost of future storm damage outweighed the cost of the project.
In 1994, the corps abandoned its efforts to widen and deepen the Mill Creek channel and line it with concrete. Only half complete, the project had already ballooned to $120 million when the entire expense to the Butler County line was supposed to reach only $80 million, he said.
Also, environmentalists' outcry over the corps' use of concrete drew concerns that the agency's local partner, the Millcreek Conservancy District, would not be able to raise public money to maintain improvements.
In the future, Mr. Beckham has promised to steer clear of disturbing the channel or using concrete, highlighting a change in philosophy for the corps.
For years the agency held back rivers and streams with dams, dikes and concrete channels but now is exploring natural solutions from the Midwest to California's Napa Valley.
"After the 1993 floods in the Midwest, and the Mississippi River in particular, there's been a change in the outlook of the federal government on these kinds of projects," said John Zimmerman, manager of the corps' Mill Creek project.
Beyond criticism from environmentalists, widening the creek in north Hamilton County poses a danger. Disturbing old landfills in that area could release contaminants into the creek, Mr. Beckham said.
And it's more expensive: $300 million compared with $150 million to develop wetlands.
But no sooner does Mr. Beckham visit a site than a bulldozer is there the following week turning over soil for a new project, he said.
About 3,000 acres remain available in the commercial zone west of the Union Centre interchange. Less than a fourth of that is in the flood plain, where Mr. Beckham envisions the wetlands, but all of it is planned for industrial or commercial use.
Unless local governments take action to reserve the space until his study is complete, Mr. Beckham says, he may have no choice but to resort to concrete.
"It places me in an awkward position," he says. "I'm promising everyone in the public to invest in contemporary environmental features. But I can clearly see the best ones disappearing before my eyes."
