Officials from the City of Brownwood, Brown County Commissioners Court, and Brown County Water Improvement District held a joint public meeting today to discuss the possibility of FEMA raising the 100 year flood plain level by 3 feet.
Special guest to the meeting were Shea Woodard, congressional staffer from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson’s office & Garey Gilley, a liaison between the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) and Brown County.
There was really two overall issues discussed by officials. The first one is whether FEMA will accept the flood plain as 10 feet above the spillway level as it currently stands. The second issue is to have the spillway itself accepted by FEMA and the NGS as the fixed point or benchmark at which the flood level is measured.
FEMA is wanting to raise the flood level at Lake Brownwood by 3 feet from its current level of 1435 msl (mean sea level). Officials from all local agencies agreed that FEMA has no empirical nor historical information to justify raising the flood plain to this level at this time.
Dennis Spinks, General Manager from the Brown County Water Improvement District said, “The 1435 flood level has stood for 77 years and we have hard data to back it up.”
Spinks agreed with County Judge Ray West’s earlier comments that the county wishes the flood plain to stay at this level which is 10 feet above the spillway height of 1425 msl.
When Judge West asked Spinks what the damage to the lake area would be if the flood level was raised, Spinks said, “Well the damage to the lake would be substantial.” Spinks also commented that raising the flood plain by 3 more feet would have effects in Brownwood as well. “What that means to the city of Brownwood probably is greater than what it would mean to the property around the lake,” Spinks said.
Garey Gilley said that on the local level the spill way is considered a monument or fixed point at the 1425 msl level, but FEMA may not accept it at that level.
County Surveyor Don King has also been working on the project and is trying to prove that the 
spillway is in fact 1425 msl by having the number and his data certified by NGS. If this certification can be done, then FEMA will have to accept the spillway as a fixed reference point to that level.
King said, “I can’t speak for FEMA but … the flood elevation of the lake is 10 foot above the concrete on the spillway. You can call it any elevation you want to call it but that concrete is not going anywhere, and its still 10 feet above that.”
One of the most devastating aspects of raising the flood plain will be that it will encompass some homes that were not in the flood plain before & those already in the flood plain could see higher flood insurance rates.
Mayor Bert Massey said, “Once the new [flood] maps go into place there will be new flood rates and if you are in your present home on the new map designated as a 100 year flood plain, my feeling, your flood insurance rates are going to go way up.”
The county is planning to draft and adopt a resolution next week to request that FEMA consider the 10 feet above spillway level is a reasonable base flood elevation, and to request to meet with FEMA and provide them with the empirical data that the county has. Dennis Spinks pledged the Water District’s support and Mayor Bert Massey said although he could not speak for the City Council, he thought that they would agree.
