Hendersonville secures $2.46M for watershed upgrades and floodplain restoration

The City of Hendersonville Stormwater Department has secured $2,456,000 to advance flood mitigation and watershed restoration efforts in the Wash Creek and lower Mud Creek corridors.

Funding includes $2 million from the NC Emergency Management Disaster Relief & Mitigation Fund and $456,000 through the NC Flood Resilience Blueprint.

“This funding is going to be used to implement critical stormwater improvements in both the Wash Creek watershed and lower Mud Creek,” said Mike Huffman, stormwater director with the City of Hendersonville, in a press release. “These projects reflect Hendersonville’s commitment to proactive flood mitigation, infrastructure resilience, and long-term community safety.”

In the Wash Creek watershed, $2 million plus $356,000 from the Blueprint will support replacement and upsizing of aging, undersized storm drainage infrastructure. The project will relocate portions of the system into the public right-of-way for long-term maintenance and increase capacity to meet higher design standards, aiming to reduce flood frequency and depth and improve roadway safety.

An additional $100,000 will support floodplain restoration along lower Mud Creek, including reconnecting floodplains, restoring more than 2,000 linear feet of source streams, stabilizing 1,500 linear feet of streambank and enhancing roughly 20 acres of wetlands and riparian areas to improve storage capacity and water quality.