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Delta Regional Authority Grants Cairo $360,000 To Replace Levee Pumps

70 year old levee pumps will be replaced
Benjy Jeffords
/
WSIU
70 year old levee pumps will be replaced

Some long overdue repairs on two levee slough pumps in Cairo will happen soon.

ver levels are high, slough pumps keep the other side of the levee dry by pumping water back into the river.

For the last 15 years the Cottonwood pumps have not been operating at full capacity.

Those pumps are being replaced thanks to a grant for more than $360,000 from the Delta Regional Authority.

Cairo Drainage District Board Member Mark Glaab says it can be very costly to remove the water when the pumps aren’t working.

“We've had to nurse these pumps along when they would not run last time we brought in tractors with pumps behind them, back them down in the water pump over the top of the levee so you had to close the road down in order to do that, but that's the only way we can keep everybody in the dry.”

More than 50 jobs will be retained in Alexander County by replacing these pumps.

Benjy Jeffords is a digital media production specialist at WSIU Public Broadcasting located at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Contact WSIU Radio at 618-453-6101 or email wsiunews@wsiu.org
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