Findings: Engineering firm to give best ways for people of Twin Cities to keep day during next major flood
By John Henderer, The Chronicle, 12/15/98
Citizens will get a first-hand look Wednesday evening at what a $1.1 million study has produced so far as the best alternative to keep Twin Cities residents out of harm's way when the next major flood hits.
Pacific International Engineering Inc., a consultant for Lewis County, will "plain two alternatives it has studied.
The chairman of a technical oversight committee has expressed concerns Pacific International's study is "biased" toward a favored alternative, according to a letter obtained by The Chronicle. However, Monday he said his concerns may have been a misunderstanding.
For more than a year, Pacific International has worked for Lewis County to devise a flood-control solution. To varying degrees, Pacific International has considered dams, dredging, riverbank excavation, diverting floodwaters onto fields, or some combination of these.
At Wednesday's public forum, officials from the city of Centralia, Lewis County, state and federal agencies will present a progress report about the study and will answer questions.
The forum begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Centralia College cafeteria.
Pacific International officials tout two engineering alternatives: modifying the floodway by taking a monstrous bite - 7.2 million cubic yards - out of the riverbank, or modifying the flood plain.
The second alternative still includes massive riverbank excavation, although about half as much as the first alternative.
The first plan would lower flooding significantly, but it would worsen flooding downstream with "peak flow increases," according to Pacific International's draft interim report published last month.
Pacific International refers to its second alternative as "the most promising option," "more cost-effective and environment-friendly." Unlike the first alternative, this one uses farmers' fields to store floodwaters. To get floodwaters there, Pacific International suggests excavating an oxbow lake near Highway 6 west of Chehalis, raising the highway, and diverting floodwaters under it into the fields.
Excavation near the Mellen Street bridge, a "bottleneck" to floodwaters, would be less drastic, and the dirt would be trucked onto the fields to build a big berm, stopping floodwaters from draining until the storm subsides.
The plan also includes smaller excavation projects elsewhere.
Plans to store more floodwaters behind the earthen Skookumchuck Dam remain a primary component of both alternatives. It's unclear whether Scottishpower's proposed purchase of PacifiCorp, which owns the dam, may affect this component.
Jerry Alb, environmental services director for the state Department of Transportation, raised a series of concerns about the study from the technical oversight committee he chairs in a Nov. 30 letter to Lewis County Commissioner Richard Graham.
In his letter, Alb said Pacific International's draft report appeared self serving, " giving short shrift to other alternatives, such as one by the Chehalis Indian Tribe to use existing oxbow lakes for floodwater storage.
"While PIE's solution may ultimately be the best alternative ... the report's treatment of (other) alternatives is far too brief," Alb wrote.
Study: County commissioner defends Pacific International's work.
Graham answered Alb in a Dec. 1 letter, defending Pacific International's work, saying the consulrants were "doing precisely what they were hired to do." He suggested the "misunderstanding" arose from differing Perspectives and priorities: flooding management vs. watershed planning.
Alb said Monday he planned to meet today with Graham.
"I think we're all in agreement this is a process that's going to be worked out,," Alb said. "It's our commitment to get a flood-control solution down there, I think we have the best process to do that." A Pacific international consultant said the misunderstanding may have involved concerns over an update report to the Legislature, which contributed $600,000 to the flood control study.
"The actual report to the Legislature was really a small (two page) summary," not the larger draft interim report, said Chuck Gale of PIE.
John Henderer covers county gov- ernment and environmental issues for the The Chronicle. He can be reached by mail at jhenderer@chronline.com or by calling 807-8239.
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