Howard County hosted a public meeting Monday night to present the Army Corps of Engineers’ evaluation of the county’s $140 million Ellicott City flood mitigation plans.

Andy Layman, project manager for the study from the Army Corps, detailed advantages, challenges and considerations for 14 different flood reduction management strategies. He said the county followed a “sound process” in its plans.

“They wanted a gut check, an independent review of what they’ve done so far and we provided that,” Layman said. While the Army Corps of Engineers, a federal agency that oversees flood protection among its missions, did not make an official recommendation to the county, it provided an independent evaluation at Monday evening’s meeting. It’s still unclear when the five-year plan will be implemented.

“I can’t speak to how quickly they’re going to move forward. That’s going to be on their end,” Layman said of the county’s timeline. “Our evaluation looked at how each of those measures compared to each other … but we weren’t tasked and we didn’t look specifically at how quickly the county can move forward.”

County Executive Calvin Ball has said he wants the Safe and Sound plan implemented by 2025, but as of now there is no clear timeline.

See FLOOD, page 5