NATCHEZ — Land damage from recent natural disasters will be repaired soon, as Adams County is slated to receive approximately $500,000 in watershed project funding.

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 allocated $541,000,000 for watershed and flood prevention operations for areas affected by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and to other natural disasters occurring in 2017.

The funds will address debris-removal, unstable streambanks and, most commonly in Adams County, washouts.

Of the funds allocated nationally, Board of Supervisors President Calvin Butler said about $500,000 will be made available to Adams County.

“This should almost catch us up on our backlog,” Butler said. “We have approximately $550,000 in EWP projects on backlog right now. This is great for our area.”

The Emergency Watershed Protection Program helps the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service address land damaged by wildfires, hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters.

Supervisors Butler, Angela Hutchins and Ricky Gray are in Washington, D.C., this week to attend the National Association of Counties annual conference.

While there, the supervisors stopped by the offices of Mississippi Sens. Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker, where they learned of the EWP funding.

Butler said Adams County has about 30 EWP projects on backlog, and the funding should be enough to cover them.

Butler said Wicker asked him if Adams County had received that funding yet. It has not.

The Office of Management and Budget has not yet released the funding, Butler said.

“(Wicker) told one of his aides to call the OMB to make sure the funds would be released in a timely manner,” he said.

Butler said Wicker told him he hoped the funding would be available in two to three weeks.

“We brought a packet with information on our most crucial EWP projects,” Butler said. “This will be really good for us. Really good for the county.”
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