Terry Loney, The Aberdeen Daily World , October 2001
Oakville A gas station the Chehalis Tribe plans to build is fueling a debate over how the development will affect flooding in the Oakville area.
But the tribe says the opponents are running on fumes.
The tribe plans to build the station on 2.8 acres near the intersection of Highway 12 and Anderson Road the main road into the Chehalis Indian Reservation. The location, 31/2 miles southeast of Oakville, sits in the middle of the Chehalis River s flood plain and has a long history of flooding.
The tribe says it plans to dump enough fill to raise the site 3 to 31/2 feet.
The tribe owns 97 acres around that location. It bought the land, adjacent to the northern boundary of the reservation, in 1996 from a private party and transferred it into tribal trust land. The tribe erected a sign there directing traffic to the Lucky Eagle Casino.
Alan Wells, who owns a home across the highway from the proposed gas station site, said the area has flooded five or six times since he moved there 13 years ago.
In 1991 and 1996 there was severe flooding, with water several feet deep, he said, adding that sections of Anderson Road were under six feet of water in 1996.
Oakville City Councilwoman Carma Brown said the 1996 flood covered the highway south of Oakville and water poured into the southwestern corner of the city .
(About 40) homes and the Grange Hall were surrounded by a foot-and-a-half of water, she said. I would like to know where the water is going to go if we get another big flood. My concern is for Oakville and its 600 residents.
Brown, whose home was in the middle of the flood area, said the water came right up to her doorstep. Fortunately, she added, most homes are on raised foundations, which kept the damage to a minimum.
Tribal Chairman David Youckton said the tribe is taking every precaution and has invested $100,000 into studies to determine how to mitigate the changes to the flood plain.
We are finding out what we can do to it without creating flooding problems, he said. We think we are using some of the most modern technology available.
I guarantee that we will do what the technology tells us to do to mitigate changes to the flood plain.
That technology uses computer models to predict flooding and determine how to redirect water around the site of the gas station without impacting the surrounding area.
C.S. Sodhi, director of the Department of Natural Resources for the Chehalis Tribe, said the modeling so far shows there will not be a net loss of flood water storage. He added the results were confirmed by a second company.
Sodhi added the computer model called the Unit Flow Model is the same one the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is using to study flooding in the Centralia-Chehalis region.
PIE, a Bellevue based consulting company, is performing the computer modeling.
Youckton added the first directions the tribe gave the company were to ensure the project does not negatively impact the homes in that area. But Councilwoman Brown said if the tribe raises the level of the land on the flood plain, any flood waters would have to go someplace else, and Oakville is just downstream. I am for growth, but not if it is going to harm homeowners who have poured their life savings into their homes. Dave Palmer, an environmental activist who is deeply concerned about the health of the Chehalis River, said the area the tribe plans to build on is classified as Flood Zone A by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
That is a real reservoir for the high water out here, he said.
Palmer said development in the flood plain is going to mean that water is not going to have a place to go like it did before. That makes it likely that nearby homes will be subjected to increased water damage during times of high water, he added.
The FEMA Web site says that in Flood Zone A areas, there is a 26 percent chance of a structure suffering flood damage within any given 30-year period.
Paul Rogerson, director of the Grays Harbor Planning & Building department, said the zone, which is where hazardous floods occur, runs across almost the whole valley floor in that area.
Building there is highly regulated by federal, state and county governments.
But since the project is on trust land it is not required to meet many of the regulations.
There has been quite a court history on that that indicates that they don t need permits from the county to proceed, he said. Courts have established tribal sovereignty and they have established a different standard for tribes, he said.
Federal, state and county shoreline rules would all but prohibit a non-tribal entity from building a gas station at that location.
In general, it would be very difficult for us to permit that type of a project in that type of location, Rogerson said.
Though the tribe is not required to submit plans for department approval, Rogerson said he was contacted by the tribe to review rules regarding the installation of gas storage tanks and fire code issues related to a gas station.
But, he said, detailed plans were not presented.
Youckton, the tribal chairman, said the final plans for the gas station have not been completed. He added that the tribe has still not determined the number of pumps it will install there and whether it will be a convenience store as well.
Councilwoman Brown is also concerned that if the project exacerbates flooding in Oakville, the pumps on the city s two wells could be damaged.
The 1996 flood crept pretty darn close to them, she said.
The homes in Oakville are connected to septic tanks since the city does not have a sewage treatment plant, Brown said. In addition, many of the septic tanks are just steel drums filled with gravel and do not meet current codes.
A flood could carry the contents into the city s well field, she said.
Wells, the homeowner near the service station site, said that the flood waters move pretty fast through the area, which could erode the fill and expose underground fuel tanks.
If that erodes and the tanks are damaged, where will the fuel go? he asked, then answering his own question:
Down the river. Wells said he called the Environmental Protection Agency to find out who would be responsible for a cleanup and was told the EPA would take care of it. That means we the taxpayers will pay the bill. Sodhi said the tribe would pay for any damages in that event. The tribal official added that part of the study included determining how to best install the tanks to prevent just such a mishap.
He said the tribe has a vested interest in ensuring the project does not result in environmental harm. The tribe has to protect the land. It cannot move. Chairman Youckton said the tribe is willing to share all of its information on the project. He said residents can call tribal headquarters at (360) 273-5911 and ask for a tribal council member. He said that he or Sodhi also will be pleased to answer questions.
Terry Loney, a Daily World writer covering East County, can be reached at (360) 532-4000, ext. 137, or at tloney@thedailyworld.com
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