WEBVTT

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We have , uh , 33 miles of levees ,

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about 22 miles are federally designed

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and constructed levies , uh , between

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1962 and 1964 . In

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1986 , uh , those levies were ,

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uh , gifted back to us for operations

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and maintenance by Congress . Um , we

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also accepted about another 11 miles of

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what are called non-federal levies

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which , uh , are levies that are

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constructed by various entities .

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The purpose of the levees is to protect

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life and property . Back when these

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were originally authorized , there was

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a lot of ranch land out here and so in

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a sense they protected a lot of ranch

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land , um , since they've been

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constructed , the Jackson Hole areas

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experienced a lot of growth , you know ,

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due due tourism . There are some very

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expensive properties behind the levees

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now which were not there . Well , they

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were there but they were prone to

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flooding prior to the levees and so .

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Yeah , we have some pretty significant .

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Properties that are worth a lot of

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money and subdivisions that are now

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right behind the letters . The Snake

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River in this area in Jackson Hole is

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actually higher uh in elevation than

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the town of Wilson . So if the levees

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weren't here , the town of Wilson would

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be flooded . Um in the uh 30s and 40s ,

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that the town of Wilson was frequently

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flooded .

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The county is very important to our

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operation when we have trigger points

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for those slow rates , uh , the county

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will send out levee watchers to inspect

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the levees for damages and give us an

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early alert if if something's

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unraveling and then give us enough time

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to dispatch equipment out there and ,

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and make repairs as needed . Keeps us

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from having to send people from the

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district , you know , 11 hours away I

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come out here to just get a few servers .

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It used to be quite a , quite a few

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levee flood fights um each spring that

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took a significant amount of material

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and cost . Uh , and then when the Army

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Corps started , Kenny Kerlin started

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the levy rehab in 2012 . Uh , we've

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seen a significant reduction in flood

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fighting responses in the springtime .

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And a good test was back in 2017 . We

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had a pretty high runoff that year .

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And uh the levies were fairly resilient ,

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um , due to the core Kennedy's efforts

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for rehabilitation .