News

Floodwaters damage Mills River boat launch

Flooding last week washed away gravel and left boat launch steps covered in sediment.

By Bill Moss, Published: January 4, 2016

MILLS RIVER — Three days of downpours last week heavily damaged Mills River’s new boat launch at the town park.

“We emptied 10 inches of rain out of our rain gauge,” Town Manager Jeff Wells told the Town Council on Monday morning during a meeting called to authorize economic development incentives for a new plant. “It did a number on our boat launch and our parking lot.”
The heavy rain Dec. 28-30 left a thick layer of sand on the riverbank and canoe launch, washed gravel from underneath steps leading to the river, eroded the roadway leading to the parking lot, coverd the parking lot in mud, submerged about 40 feet of walking trail and clogged the river with trees and brush. “A lot of that debris has been removed by the DOT,” Wells reported.
The boat launch remains closed because of the washed-out road. Wells said he had talked with contractors and consulting engineer Tom Jones of WGLA Engineering about various fixes including rip-rap to stabilize the riverbank, concrete instead of gravel under the wood steps and a swale to drain water.
“We’re always going to have sediment and debris” from storms, Wells said. “In smaller events we’ve been able to go in there and shovel it off but this time it was just too much.”
Councilman Billy Johnston, who has farmed land along the French Broad River and Cane Creek all his life, cautioned against expensive work to reroute water.
“It’s hard to do anything about these rivers,” he said. “You can spend all the money you want to."
“This is natural,” he added, pointing to a sketch of the river. “You do something here it causes reaction over here. You raise it up over here it puts more water over here.”
The council authorized Wells to hire landscape crews to fix the road and clean up the sediment and debris. The town manager said he would obtain estimates on a more permanent solution to flooding problems.

“I’m assuming it’s not going to be cheap,” he said.