The following editorial appeared in The Chronicle on March 4. It was written following a Chehalis River Council sponsored meeting which hosted Larry Kunzler. Larry is an individual from Skagit County and is well informed on flooding issues. Larry was invited by the Chehalis River Council to speak to the public and share with them his experiences and knowledge in the hope that an informed public would be better able to make decisions about their future.
THE POINT: Skagit County man brought here to debunk local flood control district fails to offer better solution
Outsider Larry Kunzler contends he has the answers to the major flooding problems that beset the Twin Cities area. He doesn't.
Kunzler, from Skagit County, some of which is in the Skagit River flood plain, is an investigator for a Seattle law firm. He was brought to the Twin Cities the other day by the Chehalis River Council to debunk the proposed flood control district for the upper Chehalis basin in Lewis County. Kunzler offered his own government solution for our flooding: (1) Allow farmlands to flood and compensate farmers for storing the stormwater; (2) Stop development in the floodplain; (3) Use wetlands as storage areas for floodwaters; (4) Use shorter levees that don't pose so great a safety risk if they break.
But in Lewis County, farmers expect their farmlands to flood and don't expect the government (taxpayers) to pay them for it, although some of them understandably wouldn't turn it down if offered. Farmers likely would be apprehensive about enhancing surface water storage on their private land for fear of it being officially designated wetlands, without public compensation for loss of economic value because they couldn't farm it any more in the dry season.
Stopping development in the floodplain sounds good at first mention, but a moratorium might be more prudent, allowing for time to scientifically assess just how much filling related to development contributes to flooding. Those advocating a ban on further development in the floodplain should be careful about definitions of the latter. The Interstate 5 corridor through the Twin Cities and to their north and south is in the Chehalis floodplain, but is the most logical area for further commercial development. Use and enhancement of existing genuine wetlands and marshes in the Twin Cities area, and creation of additional one where prudent, is a good idea. Give Kunzler a plus for joining others in advocating that.
The idea of determining how long dikes should be based on how much damage they'd cause if they break is rather counterproductive. Of course, some consideration should be given to that, but it shouldn't be the overriding factor. If they are such a safety threat, why install them along river banks at all?
In Kunzler's Skagit County, extensive dikes along the banks of the skagit River have served very well in recent decades in protecting Mount Vernon and Burlington from major flooding.
Kunzler says building a dam on the Chehalis, as advocated by the flood control district proponents as one of the components of a larger, coordinated strategy, is a "pipe dream". Governments elsewhere are striving to tear down dames, he said.
Does he advocate that Seattle City Light be made to take down its two dams on the Baker River, upstream from Mount Vernon on the upper Skagit? The dams are for power production, but undoubtedly have helped spare the Mount Vernon area from the major flooding of the sort that plagues the Twin Cities.
The flood control district proponents are making a good faith effort to finally deal with major flooding head on, not with half measures that only deceive people and businesses into thinking they may be safe.
Halting fill and development, where it can be shown to help alleviate flooding, and enhancing storage capacity in the floodplain through more wetlands and other methods, likely would help, but not nearly enough.
Short of major coordinated projects, severe flooding will remain a threat to our area. Absent flood protection, the state is likely to raise Interstate 5 through the Twin Cities, which has the potential to add far more fill in the floodplain than commercial and industrial development. And the cost of the I-5 raising, and subsequent potentially worse flooding, would far outweigh the costs of the projects proposed by the Flood Action Council for the basin.
Kunzler has some decent ideas, but on the whole his prescription for solving the Twin Cities flood problem would be woefully inadequate. - - -------------------