OUR VIEWS Editorial, The Chronicle, 12/18/98
Hope that finally something will be done to stop major flooding in the Twin Cities has gotten new life recently with the promising plans under consideration by local governmental entities with the help of an engineering firm.
Those hopes have been dashed so many times that folks hereabouts can be excused for any skepticism, if not cynicism, they have that any serious flood control will ever occur in the Chehalis flood plain.
As Lewis County Commissioner Richard Graham pointed out at a public meeting this week at Centralia College, flood studies on the Chehalis go back as far as the 1920s, or more than 70 years. And nary a one has ever been implemented.
The meeting was for the consulting firm, Pacific International Engineering, to explain details of its $ 1.1 million flood-control study of the Chehalis Basin, which in our area includes the Newaukum and Skookumchuck tributaries.
"We now have a project that has the potential to go to implementation," said Harry Hosey, PIE manager. Folks attending the meeting were encouraged and supportive. But put the emphasis on "potential."
The plan, based on extensive professional computer modeling of the basin based on the most devastating flood of all - in February 1996 - holds great promise for ending the sort of flooding we've had that has taken a major toll in damage to public and private property in the Twin Cities area. At stake in the flood-prevention efforts is protection of Interstate 5 through the Twin Cities so as to help facilitate and speed the much-needed widening of the freeway. That's a major consideration for expansion of our local economy.
While a number of alternatives are being considered, PIE's favorite at this time includes erecting a rubber weir atop the Skookumchuck Dam, excavating the Chehalis upstream and downstream of the Mellen Street Bridge in Centralia and diverting floodwaters under part of a raised section of Highway 6 west of Chehalis into farmers' fields to lower the crest downstream.
One question on that is have any of the farmers been consulted? Some of the fields adjacent to the river typically flood when the river goes over its banks in that area. But the proposal would apparently flood a -larger area deeper and longer.
As always, the major stickler is money to pay for any plan that may be settled on. The cost of the preferred alternative is apparently an estimated $80 million. But the benefits derived from the protection would far outweigh the costs in the long run.
PIE plans to hold four more public meetings, probably in late January or early February, to further acquaint people with the planning and progress of the project. At some point, a decision on which alternative to pursue will need to be made.
But it appears even with the best scenario of choosing what's to be done, getting the necessary permits and obtaining the financing, work won't begin until 2000 or 2001.
Some good news is perhaps we've seen the worst of this season's rains, having dodged a big flood bullet in November, and perhaps we can get through another rainy season or two without another major flood.
It was encouraging that 3rd District U.S. Rep.-elect Brian Baird was at this week's PIE meeting and offering encouraging words. Baird will soon be in a position to offer considerable help in securing the needed financing.
Centralia Mayor Jessie Brunswig summed up the bottom line at the meeting in exhorting citizens to write to their elected representatives in Congress (Baird and U.S. Senators Slade Gorton and Patty Murray) for financial support: "We must tell them that no action is not an option."
Indeed it shouldn't be. And active citizen support is absolutely essential.
This page created and maintained by Chehalis River Council
Send comments or questions to the: Chehalis River Council