Navajo County issued the following annoucement on Jan. 20.
On January 19, 2022 the White House announced that $66 million has been allocated to refurbish the levee system along the Little Colorado River outside of Winslow, Arizona. The Army Corps of Engineers will leverage funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to increase community resilience to flooding, which includes $645 million to reduce coastal flood risk through 15 projects and $1.7 billion to reduce inland flood risk through an additional 15 projects across the country. The resources to move this project forward comes after a decade and a half of advocacy from past Navajo County Supervisors and staff, former Arizona Congressional and United States Army Corps of Engineers leaders, and most recently the strategic leadership of the offices of Congressman Tom O’Halleran, Senator Mark Kelly, and Senator Kyrsten Sinema.
Navajo County Vice Chairman Alberto Peshlakai said, “Navajo County is tremendously grateful for Congressman O’Halleran, Senator Kelly, and Senator Sinema’s role in helping us make history happen in Winslow Arizona. Navajo County has long championed the Winslow Levee project to improve life safety flood protection for families, businesses and facilities in Winslow. We are indebted to Senator Kelly for his leadership in helping the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recognize that our project is unlike any other in the country. The Winslow Levee not only protects the national supply chain that must pass through Winslow by train every day, but also protects Navajo families whom the federal government forcibly relocated into a 100-year flood plain. Navajo County has long fought for the federal government to utilize a more equitable evaluation of rural and tribal flood control projects. Our federal delegations fight for us to get a fair shot resulted in social justice criteria being used for the first time by ACE and OMB in their evaluation processes which will now make construction of this essential infrastructure a reality. This is a historic win for the City of Winslow and Navajo County that creates precedent for rural and tribal communities everywhere.”
Funding for the Winslow Levee Project will be a tremendous economic boost to the City of Winslow in a variety of ways. The project will improve the long-term economic outlook of the community by protecting personal property and businesses. This includes the BNSF Railway, which moves billions of dollars of goods from Long Beach to Chicago annually.
Navajo County Chairwoman Whitesinger stated, “This is a tremendous opportunity for the City of Winslow and Navajo County. I am grateful to our Federal Delegation who worked hard to pass the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which allocated the much-needed funding for this project. Thank you to the many people who worked to bring this critical infrastructure to fruition, including President Nez, Navajo County Vice Chairman Peshlakai, Former Supervisor Jesse Thompson, and Mayor Roberta Cano. Your collaboration and advocation for the community of Winslow are to be commended."
Original source can be found here.
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