The Board of Directors Meeting was held on January 23, Saturday, 2010, in San Marcos at the Holiday Inn Express meeting room. Minutes review if forth coming.

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________?

TSSWCB Receives Funding for O&M of Flood Control Dams

Date Line 10-26-2009 Temple, Texas: The Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board (TSSWCB) received a $15 million appropriation for the 2010-2011 biennium from the Texas Legislature to administer a state funded grant program to assist soil and water conservation districts (SWCDs) in performing operation, maintenance, and structural repair of flood control dams throughout the state.

"Every SWCD that reported an operation and maintenance (O&M) need in the last year of the previous funding cycle has been allocated a percentage of what they reported, and notification of those allocation amounts has been sent to those SWCDs so that work can begin," said Jos? Dodier, Chairman of the TSSWCB.

Dodier added that the TSSWCB would provide a mechanism that allows for other local sponsors of flood control dams to receive an eligible SWCD's allocation if the SWCD provides a written request to transfer the allocation.

John Foster, TSSWCB Statewide Resource Management Programs Officer said that all O&M reimbursement requests will be paid by the TSSWCB at 90 percent of the total reimbursement request amount. Ten percent of the total reimbursement request amount must be paid through funds not originating from state appropriations.

"What's happened is that over the last 60 years nearly 2,000 floodwater retarding structures or dams have been built within 148 watershed project areas in Texas for the primary purpose of protecting lives and property by reducing the velocity of floodwaters," said Dodier.

"These are earthen dams that exist on private property. They were designed and constructed by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS formerly Soil Conservation Service) with the understanding that the private property owner would provide the land, the federal government would provide the technical design and expertise including the funding to construct them, and then units of local government would be responsible for maintaining them," added Dodier. Local units of government include SWCDs, counties, cities, and Water Control and Improvement Districts.

"The problem that has arisen over time is that when the projects were planned and structures built, the majority of the areas in which they were built were in a rural setting. Over time conversion from agricultural to urban land use has taken place and is continuing to intensify, so many of these structures that were originally constructed as low hazard are now classified as high hazard, or soon will be as a result of downstream urbanization and population growth. Compound that with the fact that it has been historically difficult for local sponsors to raise adequate funding for the operation and maintenance of these structures", added Dodier.

These earthen structures, most of which have been constructed in the central part of the state, are known by multiple names such as flood control dams, floodwater retarding structures, watershed structures, or flood prevention sites. Classified according to their potential to impact human lives and public infrastructure should a failure occur, these earthen dams are given a categorization as low hazard, significant hazard and high hazard.

Foster explained that a low hazard dam's failure would cause damage primarily to agricultural land, farm buildings and rural roads. The failure of a classified significant hazard dam has the potential to damage minor state roads and utilities while a dam classified as high hazard has the potential to cause significant damage to urban structures, main highways and utilities as well as loss of life.

Foster added that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is the state agency responsible for dam safety inspections, but the TSSWCB would now be able to assist SWCDs and local governments in meeting the TCEQ standards for safety.

Working in combination with the appropriations provided to the TSSWCB by the State Legislature, the USDA-NRCS received $ 20 million in funding from Congress through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to repair 20 dams and an additional $4.8 million to rehabilitate or redesign and upgrade two existing dams. One is the Calaveras Creek Dam located in Bexar County and the other is the Plum Creek Dam in Hays County.

For additional information, you may contact John Foster with the Texas Soil and Water Conservation Board in Temple at 254-773-2250.

________________________________________________________________?

SAFETY CORNER

(The following article provided by the Bituminous Insurance Company. With the possibilities of freezing rain and ice this winter season, seat belts are an absolute must to save your life in the event of a vehicle crash and to prevent company losses in life, property, and business)

Seatbelts: Why You Should Use Them

The figures are familiar: 40,000 people die each year in car accidents, the leading cause of death for people under the age of 35. Safety belts can prevent death in about half of these accidents. If you know this and are still not wearing a safety belt, you may need to ask yourself why not. But first, let's look at what happens when a car crashes.

The Human Collision

Imagine running as fast as you can - into a wall. You'd expect to get pretty banged up. Do you think you could stop yourself if the wall suddenly loomed up when you were two feet away from it? This is exactly the situation you face when the front of your car hits something at only 15 miles an hour.

The car stops in the first tenth of a second, but you keep on at the same rate you were going in the car until something stops you - the steering wheel, dashboard or windshield - if you're not wearing your safety belt..

Bad enough at 15 miles an hour, but a 30 miles you hit "the wall" four times as hard as you would at 15. Or to put it another way, with the same impact you'd feel as if you fell three stories.

Wear It Right

"Properly worn" means with both straps snugly fitted to transfer the impact of the collision to the parts of your body that can take it - your hipbones and shoulder bones. With just the shoulder strap on, you can still slide out from under it and be strangled, while the lap belt alone doesn't keep your face from hitting the steering wheel.

What's Your Reason For Not Wearing One?

"I'm only going to the shopping center." Actually, this is the best time to wear a safety belt, since 80% of traffic fatalities occur within 25 miles of home and under 40 miles an hour.

"I won't be in an accident: I'm a good driver." Your good driving record will certainly help you avoid accidents. But even if you're a good driver, a bad driver may still hit you.

"I'll just brace myself." Even if you had the split-second timing to do this, the force of the impact would shatter the arm or leg you used to brace yourself.

"I'm afraid the belt will trap me in the car." Statistically, the best place to be during an accident is in your car. If you're thrown out of the car, you're 25 times more likely to die. And if you need to get out of the car in a hurry - as in the extremely tiny percent of accidents involving fire or submergence - you can get out a lot faster if you haven't been knocked unconscious inside your car.

"They're uncomfortable." Actually, modern safety belts can be made so comfortable that you may wonder if they really work. Most of them give when you move - a device locks them in place only when the car stops suddenly. You can put a little bit of slack in most belts simply by pulling on the shoulder strap. Others come with comfort clips, which hold the belt in a slightly slackened position. If the belt won't fit around you, you can get a belt extender at most car dealerships.

"I don't need a belt - I've got an airbag." Lucky you! An air bag increases the effectiveness of a safety belt by 40 percent. But air bags were never meant to be used in place of safety belts, since they don't protect against side impacts at all.

A properly worn safety belt keeps that second collision - the human collision - from happening.

______________________________________________________________________