Citizens have tough queries on flood study
By John Henderer, The Chronicle, 2/18/99
Curious Chehalis-area citizens received a flood-control update Wednesday evening, posing tough questions to Lewis County's $1.1-million consultant.
About 50 citizens listened as Harry Hosey, Pacific International Engineering manager, explained progress on his Edmonds company's study of the Chehalis River Basin.
Citizens asked whether continued filling in the flood plain or raising Interstate 5 would affect PIE's study.
Others wondered whether their farmlands would be inundated, or whether Pe Ell rainfall could be controlled.
Centralian Esther Jenson said her home on Grove Street, southeast of town, has been flooded many times in 33 years.
''Why are people (still) getting permits to fill in the dang flood zone?'' she asked during the meeting.
Flooding last Thanksgiving Day brought 6 inches of water into Jenson's living room. It ruined the carpet and forced her to change holiday plans, cooking a turkey at her daughter's home.
''The more filling they do, the more water I get,'' she said.
Lewis County Commissioner Russ Wigley said the county would face liabilities if it were to restrict filling in the flood plain with a moratorium.
But if a proposed flood-control project had been in place, none of the area's past floods would have flooded the Twin Cities as they did, Hosey said.
''There is a solution: It's $80 million,'' Hosey said.
But later, he conceded, ''There is a flood out there that this solution isn't going to help you one little bit on.''
The favored alternative to date includes erecting a rubber weir atop the Skookumchuck Dam, excavating riverbank upstream and downstream of the Mellen Street bridge, and redirecting floodwaters under part of Highway 6 to inundate farmers' fields on the other side.
The soonest any construction could begin is 2001, officials said.
''It's a brighter future than we've had in the last decade,'' said Mike Daniels, Grays Harbor County public services director.
Wednesday's meeting was the fourth of a series of public gatherings designed to update citizens about the study, and to invite comments.
Hosey's associates, working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, have developed a sophisticated computer model of the river basin. Based on cross-sectional views of the river at flood stage, it allows PIE to predict how floodwaters would rise under various conditions.
The work remains in its early stages and could be redirected, Hosey said.
Chehalis Mayor Bob Spahr began the meeting with a story recalling how his mother remembered milking cows during local floods as a child in the 1920s.
''We haven't probably gotten too far since then'' toward controlling flooding, Spahr said.
Brad and Julie Powe, farmers along South Scheuber Road, questioned whether Hosey had spoken with local residents about plans to inundate their farmlands.
The Powes grow hay and raise Holstein replacement heifers for dairies. Inundating the 120 acres they farm would require more time for the fields to dry off and to become productive.
''You kind of get to feel like you're the scapegoat for the cities and all the filling they do,'' said Julie Powe.
''Somebody starts to push water my way, that's a little tough - that's a little hard to swallow,'' Brad Powe said.
Hal Hamilton, who farms wheat, peas and corn on several hundred acres also along Scheuber, said he would not oppose the inundation plan, which, he said, appeared to be based on a scientific approach.
''I think we have to look at the community and what it'll do for the whole area,'' Hamilton said.
Hosey said the government could buy property affected by a flood-control project.
Frank Merrill of Centralia asked Hosey whether he knew how much rain fell in Pe Ell over the past three years.
''It's a lot of rain,'' Merrill said, citing rainfall statistics of between 85 and 89 annual inches. ''I think we have to seriously consider what can be done to keep all that water in place.''
Doty resident Hollis ''Red'' Cox asked Merrill, ''What do you want us to do, tell God to quit raining on us?''
Hosey's firm has investigated building one or more dams on the upper Chehalis River and its tributaries. That study came in 1996 and early 1997, while PIE was working for the Flood Action Council, comprised largely of local business officials.
Since being hired by Lewis County, PIE has ruled dams unfeasible.
John Henderer covers county government and environmental issues for The Chronicle. He can be reached by e-mail at jhenderer@chronline.com or by calling 807-8239.
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