A joint effort last year by several communities aimed to find solutions for persistent, worsening flooding in southwest Butler County.

It examined historical data and reassessed the watershed and waterways believed to cause the most issues.

However, when the lengthy report was turned over to various entities earlier this year, the results were less than positive.

It stated that any number of fixes would take years or decades to implement and would cost millions of dollars to complete. The results would be “negligible,” with most of the options explored resulting in a change of one foot or less to the flood levels during 10-, 50-, 100- or 500-year flood events.

Despite the bad news, officials believe the study should serve as an example of how a potential solution to flooding woes must be accomplished — through collaboration and a pooling of resources.

This is an excerpt — pick up Sunday’s Butler Eagle to find out how communities are working together to solve the area’s flooding issues.