DAVENPORT, Iowa — Davenport and Muscatine received more than $13 million in federal grant money to help protect against future natural disasters.
Nearly $10 million went to Davenport to help protect its regional wastewater treatment facility from flooding.
Muscatine received just over $3 million to support improvement for the Muscatine-Louisa Island Levee District.
"We're just making sure that, should anything like 2019 happen again, we're well safe," Davenport assistant public works director Clay Merritt said.
Davenport hoped to be ahead of any future flood, like the historic one in 2019 when the Mississippi River crested just over 22.5 feet.
One of Davenport's most valuable assets was the water pollution control plant off of South Concord Street near Credit Island.
"We want to make sure we can protect that critical regional asset," Merritt said.
The control plant serves the sewer system.
"If we were to get higher records of flood, we want to make sure that facility doesn't have any chance of getting river water in it," Merritt said.
The federal government awarded Davenport the money to build a flood wall, also called an earth and berm, at the plant.
"It's a big huge mound of dirt and a ring of protection around it," Merritt said.
The water barely missed the facility at the time of the flood.
"We came pretty close in 2019," Merritt said.
The fence outside of the facility was about 18.5 feet high. During the 2019 flood, the water almost reached the plant's buildings, which are around 26.5 feet.
The flood wall was about 28.5 feet high, only 2 feet higher than the plant.
"That's what kind of initiated this immediately after," Merritt said.
Davenport planned to use some of the grant for equipment like a pumping station to flush out any water that comes close to reaching the flood wall.
"When it rains, you want to make sure you have the proper mechanical systems in place to then pump that rain water out," Merritt said.
No timeline is set yet for the installation of the flood wall.
The wastewater facility also serves Bettendorf, Panorama Park and Riverdale.
View News 8's coverage of the flood here: