PORTLAND -- The city of Portland announced that a natural flood plain is expected to reduce the number of times Johnson Creek spills over and floods SE Foster Road. 

Recent restoration of the 70-acre plain will hold and release water that would otherwise spill over Foster, closing the road.

"If you are seeing the restored flood plain fill up, there is a real good chance that water would have been over Foster Road," said Eli Callison, an environmental specialist working on the Johnson Creek Watershed project.

The city hoped to avoid all smaller floods with the stream level less than 12 feet. Flood stage at the Sycamore Gage is 11 feet. Flood waters above 12 feet are still expected to cause problems.

Johnson Creek has flooded Foster Road 16 times over the past 20 years.  The completed flood control project would have prevented six of those 16 events. 

Hydrologists believe even the worst case events will still come on a bit slower and, in many cases, drain from impacted areas a bit quicker.

The completed project carried a $20 million price tag.  Much of the funding was used to buy out 60 home owners, to return the area to natural habitat.

City managers acknowledged the coming rainy season would be a learning curve as they observe how much time it takes the flood-holding pool to fill and drain. They hoped to reduce the number of floods down to one every three years.

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