By Sharon Michael, The Chronicle, 6/22/98
Teamwork and vigilance will be required to bring home money for a Lewis County-sponsored $80 million to $100 million flood-control project, the plan's engineering consultant warned county and city officials Saturday.
Harry Hosey of Pacific International Engineering told Chehalis, Centralia and Lewis County officials at Saturday's quarterly joint governmental meeting that even after Congress allocates the money, they will have to track it through the bureaucracy to make sure it isn't diverted to another project.
''You'll be immersed in this for three solid years,'' Hosey said.
Commissioner Richard Graham said a recent $600,000 allocation from the state Legislature will keep the project studies on schedule through April 1999, but federal money is needed for final project design and construction.
Graham is going to Washington, D.C., next week to talk to members of Congress and agency employees to push for money for the county's flood-control plan.
The plan includes modifications to the Skookumchuck Dam, excavating under the Mellen Street Bridge in Centralia, and overbank excavations at other points along the Chehalis River.
Hosey says the result will be a 4- to 7-foot reduction in 100-year flood levels.
''I-5 stays completely dry - completely high and dry at the existing grade,'' Hosey predicted.
Centralia will have ''almost no flooding,'' he added.
Hosey assured Chehalis City Councilor Wayne Galvin that Interstate 5 at Highway 6 would also stay dry. That area of the interstate was not included in a January presentation Hosey made to the intergovernmental group previewing PIE's computerized river model.
Potential sources of state and federal money for local flood control include the Washington Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, which are working on a $97 million plan to raise the freeway through the Twin Cities to keep it above 50-year flood levels.
State and federal highway departments could accomplish more for less by diverting money to the Lewis County project, Hosey said.
The key to securing public money for the project is identifying the beneficiaries, Hosey explained.
He said state officials estimate costs directly and indirectly related to loss of commerce total $50 million to $70 million for each day the freeway is closed.
Each major flood costs the Federal Emergency Management Agency about $10 million in flood damage, Hosey said.
But repeated flooding also disrupts the community and affects future growth and economic development, he added.
''There's $150 to $180 million total benefit for a project that costs $80 to $100 million,'' Hosey said. ''So it makes sense.''
Hosey estimated 60 percent to 75 percent of the total project costs could come from the federal government, 20 percent to 30 percent from the state, and 5 percent to 10 percent from local governments.
But there is stiff competition for limited state and federal dollars, and government officials and citizens will have make sure their elected representatives hear from them and know that the project is important to them, he advised.
''I can't do it for you,'' Hosey said.
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