The City of Vicksburg is seeking a $751,597 Natural Resources Conservation Service Emergency Watershed Program grant to repair three erosion problems in the city.

According to its website, the NRCS Emergency Watershed Program offers technical and financial assistance to help local communities relieve imminent threats to life and property caused by natural disasters like floods that affect a watershed.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Tuesday authorized applying for the money to repair erosion problems at Evergreen Drive, Patricia Street and Iowa Boulevard where Interstate 20 crosses the road. The grant will cover about 83 percent of the projects’ cost with the city paying approximately 17 percent.

Interim Public Works Director Dane Lovell said the problem on Evergreen involves erosion along a creek bank affecting part of the street south of a drainage culvert. He said some work on the problem was done in an earlier NRCS project “but they only did certain areas so we’re going to tie it in and finish it out.”

Lovell said the problem on Patricia Street involves soil eroding and affecting a main sewer line.

“We’re trying to protect the sewer main,” he said. “On Iowa Boulevard we have water, sewer and gas mains in the area that have eroded real bad so we’re doing work to protect them.”