SOUTH WILLIAMSON, Ky. – The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has begun the process of revoking certification on two floodwalls in South Williamson following a mandate from the federal government.

The sections under scrutiny are at South Williamson and the floodwall that protects the Appalachian Regional Hospital.

If the floodwall is decertified, it would result in increased insurance rates to homeowners in the floodplain. District Six Magistrate Chris Harris said homes protected by the floodwall currently receive a discount on homeowners’ policies.

“The discount would disappear,” Harris said. “It would be as if there wasn’t a floodwall there.”

“We received notification in the spring that by August a mandate was coming from congress,” Pike County Flood-plain Coordinator Jimmy Kiser told the Fiscal Court at its regular meeting. “The process to remove certification began Nov. 23.”

The mandate comes as a result of the failure of levees in New Orleans during flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina. Congress subsequently passed legislation requiring floodwalls be inspected and certified.

Those inspections and certifications must be performed by either the US Army Corps of Engineers or an independent engineering firm.

However, the inspections are expensive, and the mandate provided no funding to pay for the required inspections.

Summit Engineering has agreed to conduct the inspection for $205,569. Added to a fee for Gentech consulting for $49,515, a total of $254,784 is needed for the certification.

“This is an unfunded mandate,” Kiser said. “We told FEMA we did not have the money to pay for this.”

FEMA has agreed to give the county the funds to pay for the inspection, Kiser said. He asked the court for approval to contract with Summit and Gentech for their services.

“The county would be paid when FEMA furnishes funds to pay for the certification,” Kiser said.

Harris said he met with congressman Hal Rogers about the mandate.

“I spoke to Congressman Rogers in Washington about this issue,” Harris said. “I told him its not fair to Pike County; FEMA builds this floodwall and turns it over the counties, and

then decertifies them. They have already spent millions to build these floodwalls, and then with the stroke of a pen, they are decertified.”

The Fiscal Court voted unanimously to accept the contract Kiser presented to Summit and Gentech.