Search this Chehalis River Council site!Saturday, July 02, 2005
Nick George / The Chronicle This stretch of the Chehalis River between Centralia and Chehalis runs near Airport Road, center left, and Interstate 5, far left. Midway Meats is on bottom left. Current plans call for eventually rebuilding Airport Road on top of a new floodwall here to save space for the future expansion of the freeway to six lanes. The difficulty of juggling all these plans has recently caused Lewis County leaders to refocus a local flood control project.
Lewis County has dropped its longtime flood consultant and refocused its attention on an extensive system of levees in a effort to control Chehalis River floods, but a lack of federal money is still keeping the project stuck in slow motion.
Early last month, Lewis County leaders declined to renew their contract with Pacific International Engineering, which has guided the county's flood control project since being hired by a local citizens group in 1996. The most recent two-year, $1.6 million contract expired Thursday.
The local officials in charge of the flood control project have turned their attention away from the high-tech modifications of the remote Skookumchuck Dam favored by PIE, although Lewis County still hopes this fall to explore a little-known tunnel under the dam that possibly could be modified for flood control and fish habitat enhancement.
The local focus now is on completing the layout for a plan to expand the isolated dikes that already surround much of the Twin Cities.
"PIE was under contract to do that, but they focused on the dam work," Lewis County Public Works Director Mark Cook said. "We felt it prudent to reevaluate our relationship with PIE ... the board (of county commissioners) has always extended their contracts. The board is saying we will not extend this one." A major reason for the change in perspective is that Louisiana Avenue's planned extension to Airport Road, seen as a way to relieve traffic around Wal-Mart and the new Home Depot in north Chehalis, comes into immediate conflict with the need to raise Airport Road for flood control.
Chehalis city officials had said Home Depot could not open until the two roads were connected, but a clause in their agreement would allow the retailer's doors to open without the road extension if the project couldn't be permitted — a difficult task with so many immediate plans by different governmental entities for Airport Road.
Further complicating the issue is this spring's decision by the state Legislature to fund a rebuilding of Interstate 5's Mellen Street interchange in south Centralia.
Connecting Louisiana Avenue and Airport Road would add traffic to Airport Road, which would need to be raised for the flood control project. It would also bring more cars to an already bustling exit 81 at Mellen Street, which would be rebuilt as the freeway is widened.
"That's one of the big issues. Everything now is tied to the I-5 widening, and if we never get the flood control project completed the way that it was originally set out, we're never going to get I-5 completed," said Lewis County's flood control project manager, county commissioner Richard Graham.
Despite spending what Lewis County estimates is $12 million on the flood control project since the February 1996 floods (most of it federal and state money), the exact configuration of the final project is still uncertain. The biggest unknown is whether the federal government will kick in money to augment the $30 million approved in a state transportation package two years ago.
It's like trying to build a 100,000-seat NASCAR stadium with money for the track but not for the grandstands, said Bart Gernhart, the Washington Department of Transportation's representative on a local flood control committee.
The basic problem: Because water can flow around an incomplete set of levees, how do you start building dikes when you don't have enough money to finish the whole system? Gernhart, based in Vancouver, Wash., said it's common to spend 10 to 15 percent of a major project's cost before construction begins. The money spent so far has resulted in Army Corps of Engineers approval and the completion of a complex environmental impact statement, he noted.
"The biggest obstacle is a lack of federal funding for the construction. Without that, we are going to be very challenged on moving forward," Gernhart said.
There is hope on the horizon for federal funding.
Congress appears poised to approve its Water Resources Development Act after an unusually long delay that has kept the Chehalis River project in limbo.
The House of Representatives is ready to vote next week, according to U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., and the Senate is also near a vote.
The latest WRDA bill passed in 2000. Normally, the bill is renewed every two years.
The bill includes authorization for a $109 million flood project for the Chehalis River in the Twin Cities, with an estimated federal share of $66 million — but the bill doesn't actually fund the project.
Setting aside money is another fight for down the road, Baird said.
"The good news is if you don't have the authorization to begin with, you simply can't do the project. This is an absolutely essential step, and is really farther than we've ever been on this project before," Baird said Friday.
For now, Lewis County, Centralia, Chehalis and the Washington Department of Transportation have decided to take a step back from the larger projects PIE had been exploring. A June 13 letter to the Edmonds-based company said Lewis County would end its eight-year relationship with the consulting firm effective June 30 — the scheduled end of a contract that had already been extended once.
Lewis County, the state DOT, Centralia and Chehalis "desire reevaluating the Centralia Flood Reduction Project and believe it is the best interest of the region to conduct that reevaluation at this time," the letter signed by the three county commissioners reads, noting, "PIE has been indispensable to the community in revitalizing the region's flood control project." The contract will not be renewed, although PIE may apply along with other engineering firms to consult for the company in the future, Cook said.
Local business and community leaders had brought in PIE shortly after the February 1996 floods, asking it to look at a wide variety of flood control projects.
PIE first proposed a series of dams on the upper Chehalis River, then refocused on a 1986 Army Corps of Engineers plan to enhance the existing Skookumchuck Dam. PIE proposed installing inflatable rubber spillway expansions to hold back more water.
The Army Corps of Engineers recently expressed reservations about that idea, although PIE was optimistic the differences could be resolved.
PIE also proposed a bypass to move more water through a narrow choke-point at Mellen Street, an idea that drew strong opposition from the oft-flooded Chehalis Indian Tribe downstream.
Chuck Gale, an Olympia-based project manager for PIE, said there is plenty to show for the money spent so far (which he disputes is anywhere near $12 million).
"There's a plan in place that will provide flood reduction through the community. Right now there isn't the coalition of entities and funds that can implement it," Gale said.
He said one of the company's biggest accomplishments is a detailed computer analysis for how water — and heavy rainfall — moves in the Chehalis River.
That system, and all of PIE's other research, is being sent to Lewis County as part of closing out the contract.
Gale said his concern is that the refocused project, driven by freeway expansion, will do more to protect I-5 than the surrounding communities.
The original goal of the citizen group was to take money that would have been spent to raise I-5 and use it for a broader flood control project.
"At some point we just lost the creativity of doing something comprehensive and people started looking out for themselves again," the PIE project manager said. "That's not unusual." Brian Mittge covers politics, the environment and Lewis County government for The Chronicle. He may be reached by e-mail at bmittge@chronline.com, or by telephoning 807-8237.
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