
FORT KNOX, Ky. — Experts from across the Fort Knox Garrison gathered in early October to discuss the impact of current and future climate trends on installation infrastructure as well as preventative measures that could reduce potential risks to the community.
The formation of the group was directed by Installation Management Command officials, with the ultimate goal of designing a location-specific installation climate resilience plan. Once plans are finalized at the IMCOM level, they will be sent back to each installation.
“IMCOM headquarters funded a contract for all installations to have an ICRP developed, which most are lacking,” said Derrick Raney, Division Chief of the Fort Knox Directorate of Public Works Master Planning Division. “The contractor provided us an out-brief of what [was discussed in our working group], then they will take all provided data to develop our climate resiliency plan, for the installation to use in future planning.”
The plan, which is being guided by the Army Climate Strategy, focused on six specific tenants - energy demand, severe weather, drought and water supply, wildfires, heat, flooding and land degradation.
Fort Knox Deputy Fire Chief Jason Geer said the discussion of the various focus areas were all anchored to local climate changes in recent years and the resulting effect on installation operations.
“I've been here 22 years, and over the last 10, I can say I have seen a significant change,” said Geer. “It seems like we have longer droughts now [and] hotter temperatures, which increases the wildfire danger here. So, we put our heads together, we went through we identified key infrastructure, and we talked about those different weather events, the risk and what we think we can do to try to reduce those risks.”
Severe weather was identified as the installations most significant climate threat, followed by heat, wildfire and land degradation.
“The only severe high-risk category we had was severe weather, [which] is causing the land degradation, which is causing road issues,” said Raney.
Geer said freezing in winter is one of his biggest infrastructure concerns.
“We have trouble with sprinkler pipes freezing in the winter and busting in buildings,” said Geer. “In December 2023, 70 buildings had busted sprinkler pipes and were flooded; it was a mess.”
He recommended implementing more stringent preventative building checks to help avoid weather-related damages.
Other proposed proactive initiatives include an overpass at the railroad on Eisenhower Avenue to streamline travel across the installation during heavier rain days, a storm water repair plan to keep culverts maintained across the installation and a new fire dozer to mitigate direct risk to individuals in the event of a large-scale wildfire.
Raney said he hopes that this new plan will help aid the installation in obtaining resources needed to solve issues noted in the working group.
“This will help us fight for necessary mitigation projects as well as the money to fund them when the time comes,” said Raney. “Our ultimate goal is to keep the community safe, regardless of what the future sends our way.”
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