Resident urges county to back USGS gauge upstream on Kankakee River; board to refer request to basin commission

Dawn Schmelz told the La Porte County Drainage Board she has tracked flooding near her home along the Kankakee River for 35 years and requested county support for a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) stage-only gauge upstream of the Davis (Route 30) gauge to provide earlier flood readings.

Schmelz said she had communicated with USGS contact Jeff Woods, who described options and costs. She reported USGS estimates of about $28,000 for first-year installation of a stage-only gauge and approximately $6,000 per year for operations and maintenance at current rates. Schmelz recommended locating an upstream gauge where the Big and Little Kankakee join (near 525 South) or at the Pine Creek confluence, and she said a web-hosted stage gauge (not only cellphone alerts) would be preferable because cell coverage is spotty in parts of the county.

Board members noted the Kankakee Yellow River Basin Commission (KRBC) typically handles multi-county water-monitoring projects and could assist with funding and maintenance arrangements. Tony Hendricks and other board members recommended endorsing the request and forwarding it to the KRBC technical advisory committee for further review. The board voted to forward the proposal and support Schmelz's request to KRBC and invited her to attend the KRBC technical committee meeting to present details.

Board discussion emphasized that the commission controls multi-county funds and that USGS may cost-share some O&M; the board did not commit county funds directly but approved referring and supporting the request to the regional body that would likely oversee installation and cost-sharing.