Budget cuts could hamper flood forecasting

The Michigan Dept. Transportation plans to cut funding for the gauges that measure the height and volume of water flowing thorough rivers.

Michigan River News reports that many of Michigan’s 178 stream and river gauges could be shut down amid budget difficulties in the state and federal agencies that fund them.

The data from the gauges, viewable here, helps the National Weather service predict flood events.

Mark Walton, a hydrologist in the weather service’s Grand Rapids forecast office spoke with the River News about the expected cuts.

“We’ll be able to continue to say whether it’s going to flood or not flood,” he said. “But we won’t necessarily be able to tell them how deep the water’s going to get and how high flood waters are going to go.”

Several gauges that could lose funding are in the Lansing area on the Grand and Red Cedar rivers, an area historically prone to flooding.

“There are portions of that area that get flooding almost every year,” he said. “It may not be real major flooding, but they do get some high water.”

Making matters worse, Lansing has what Walton called “critical structures” vulnerable to flooding, like hospitals, electricity infrastructure and the Michigan State Police Department.

Accurate measurements of river flow are also important to the state Dept. of Environmental Quality, which uses the data to make floodplain maps which are important for insurance and building permits. The information is also used to determine how much wastewater can be dumped into rivers.