By John Henderer The Chronicle, 2/26/99
Discord threatening to derail a $ 1.1 million flood-control project for the Chehalis River Basin may be addressed soon in an official summit. (Comment letter available here)
As part of a trip to Washington, D.C., this week, local officials obtained signatures supporting a summit to clear the air, and to resolve a nasty memo war that has gone on behind the scenes for nearly a month.
"You can have paper wars forever, and you get nothing done," Lewis County Commissioner Richard Graham said Thursday. "We want to move forward with or without (state officials)."
Graham, the study's project manager, and other local officials expressed outrage over a Feb. 2 letter signed by top employees of eight state and federal agencies.
The letter expresses concern over the pace of the study, lobbying for a process that follows federal and state laws, giving careful analysis to environmental and hydrological effects.
But the officials don't seem interested in solving local flooding, focusing instead on elaborate environmental reviews, Graham said.
"They want us to stop (the project) ... while Jerry Alb runs his total watershed thing for the next 10 to 20 years," Graham said Thursday. "The community and the elected officials are sick and tired of it, so we've asked our state and federal people to ask (for) ... a summit."
Alb, director of environmental services for the state Department of Transportation, denied trying to stop the project.
"HEAVENS, NO," Alb said. "It's not me. I'm not trying to stop it. I'm trying to broker the darn thing."
Alb heads a technical oversight committee created by the Legislature, which contributed $600,000 to the study.
He said he welcomes a summit and had been working to find a facilitator to hammer out an agreement about how the study should proceed.
The oversight committee had been meeting monthly in a county building. But in January, it moved to a state highway maintenance shop after the county last December ordered two county engineers to stop attending the meetings.
"I can't see paying people to sit there when we've got work to do here," Graham said.
Differences surfaced late last year, as Alb expressed concern the study by Pacific International Engineers appeared "biased' toward its own flood-control alternative.
After a meeting, the problems appeared to be resolved, but not for long, apparently.
Grays Harbor County Engineer Mike Daniels took great offense at the officials' Feb. 2 letter. He questioned whether they were "clairvoyant" having never attended the dozens of local meetings on the issues.
"Your letter would have the reader believe that Lewis County alone, and in a vacuum, is concocting some evil project without adjoining jurisdiction or public involvement" he said in a Feb. 19 response.
THE DELEGATION traveling to Washington this week obtained signatures from Sens. Slade Gorton, R Wash., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., as well as Reps. Brian Baird and Norm Dicks, both D-Wash., supporting a summit.
"These letters (back and forth) are of great concern to us because there appear to be significant misunderstandings among communities and agencies that should be working together," states the Feb. 19 letter to Col. James Rigsby, commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Seattle District.
The politicians urged Rigsby to organize and host the summit.
GRAHAM EXPRESSED frustration with the technical oversight group and a subcommittee to the group organized to identify an alternative flood-control solution.
"(They) have been going for months and haven't come up with one alternative yet," he said Thursday. "If you look out your window, you can see why people are getting damned excited." The Chehalis River crested 4 feet above flood stage Wednesday after more than 11 inches of rainfall fell this past week in the river's upper basin near Pe Ell.
In a December 1998 draft interim report PIE identified an alternative promising to significantly reduce Centralia and Chehalis flooding.
The study suggests excavating vast amounts of riverbank along the river near Centralia's Mellen Street Bridge, diverting floodwaters under Highway 6 west of Chehalis and onto farmers' fields, and installing a rubber weir atop the Skookumchuck Dam.
Citizens generally responded positively to the plan during a series of five public forums that concluded last week.
Alb said he hopes the flood-control solution for the Chehalis River Basin can serve as a model for other floodprone areas around the state. He said resource agencies have identified five points of agreement needed to continue the study.
"I'M WORKING very hard to bring the process together," Alb said. "I think the letters have drawn some lines in the sand, and now we're moving toward resolution."
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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