The weekly challenge of condensing political issues in a way that the average person can understand them is quite a challenge. But a bigger challenge is to find something that is also interesting and important to them. It is vexing to me when such a topic is important, but virtually no one finds it interesting. Such is the situation with one of the most significant government actions in this area over the past decade, the Greater Williamsport Levee System.

The Susquehanna River was a gift from God that provided the lumber industry with the means to deliver its products, and created a city that, at one time, had more millionaires per capita than any other city in the world. But this river had a nasty tendency of getting bigger than its britches, and the result was very terrible floods.

This was especially true in March of 1936. The flood that hit covered 70 percent of the city and resulted in $10.5 million in various property damages, that’s over $200 million in today’s dollars. A levee was obviously needed, but the Depression and World War II prevented its completion until the 1950s.

Since then, it has shown its value after Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972, the Winter Flood of 1996, and Tropical Storm Lee in 2011. This area owes a great debt of gratitude for that levee, but here is the bad news. It has been 50 years since its last update, and the standards required to meet the National Flood Insurance Program’s requirements have necessitated new upgrades. It must be reassessed and rectified by Federal and Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agencies.

And that comes with a heavy price tag. The requirements run into nine figures, obviously far and above what local governments can afford. Seeking to find funding for the levee has been going on for over a decade. I know this because I have been following the county government and the levee project, and it has been an annual topic. What makes this operation so important is not just what the levee means for the greater Williamsport area, but it appears that the way that Lycoming County has addressed this issue is becoming a beacon that other government entities have been able to follow.

Lycoming County has also been proactive in responding to flooding issues that go beyond the levee. Following the 1996 flood, the county was among the first in the United States to create a hazard mitigation plan. After Tropical Storm Lee, the county used grants to acquire properties near creeks to reduce future flood damage and has implemented a flood warning system with 21 automatic stream gauges. State legislators have also been actively discussing flood mitigation concerns and proposing policy changes to improve creek and stream maintenance to minimize flood impact.

It is one of the very few areas that all the various boroughs, townships, and the city of Williamsport all agree on. In Lycoming County’s Comprehensive Plan, ‘flooding’ was recognized as one of the most important priority issues. Hardly a month or two goes by without some ‘update’ on the levee.

Thus, it was not surprising that at the Lycoming County Commissioners Meeting on June 26th, Kelsey Green announced “a quick update on the work on the levee,” which had to do with 23 cross pipes, which was Phase 2 of the EDA money. This will help meet the SQRA, allowing the Army Corps of Engineers’ semi-quantitative risk assessment to be completed and signed off by everyone.

Did you get all that? Of course not, and to be honest, I did not understand it either. I spent several hours working through the internet to decipher those hieroglyphs. I realized that it was important and significant, but to put it into context would take much more space than this column can offer.

The recent anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg reminds us that those three days saved our country from coming apart, yet there have been hundreds of books explaining how that happened. The levee is obviously not as stirring, but for decades and decades in the future, it will be the most important element that will keep us safe from the torrents of floods. History is being changed by this levee. It deserves recognition.