By Katie Knapp Schubert
Omaha, NE – 70 dewatering wells are drilled and functioning at Omaha's Eppley Airfield.
Omaha Airport Authority executive director Steve Coufal says they're in the third phase of their flood control plan monitoring the levees and dewatering wells. Coufal says the dewatering wells are doing their job, which is to reduce groundwater levels. Groundwater levels are down as much as 14 feet near the dewatering wells and two and a half feet near the Airfield itself.
Coufal says the situation at Eppley Airfield is stable. "As we sit through the briefing each morning, we've been informed that the environment out here as we monitor the Missouri levels have stabilized, and so our focus now is to continue to monitor, we're going to be diligent with that into early fall."
Coufal projects that by the time Missouri River flood water recedes, the Airport Authority will have spent $26 million on flood control efforts.