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City employees, private contractors take over levee surveillance in Omaha

Gavins Point Dam
image courtesy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Gavins Point Dam

By Katie Knapp Schubert

Omaha, NE – Omaha Public Works employees and private contractors are now on surveillance of the city's 13 mile levee system.

The Nebraska National Guard's six-week levee surveillance mission ended at noon Sunday. Now, Public Works employees and private contracting firms are monitoring the levee, looking for possible issues.

Marty Grate of Omaha Public Works says the private contractors are in two groups. One group is doing surveillance, looking for issues such as sink holes, sand boils, and seepage. The other group is providing security, and monitoring equipment for signs of vandalism.

During the Guard's six-week levee surveillance mission, up to 700 issues were discovered along the levee system. Some of those issues were fixed. Others are being monitored.

Starting Monday, water releases from Gavins Point Dam return to 150,000 cubic feet per second.