State doesn't like Exit 72 work
By John Henderer, The Chronicle, 12/11/99
Related Court decision
A fast-food development in the floodplain south of Chehalis has raised concerns from the state Department of Transportation.
State highway officials reviewed an environmental permit last year for a fast-food development adjacent to Interstate 5 and Rush Road.
But seeing dump trucks erect a dike 200 feet from the Newaukum River floodway this fall prompted fresh concerns.
"The stuff we received in '98 didn't show the dike going in, so we didn't comment on the dike," Bart Gernhart, DOT project development engineer, said Friday.
DOT officials wrote a letter to Lewis County early last month, raising multiple concerns about the project, then another Nov. 18 asking why the county had not responded.
Chehalis-based Tri-Mountain Resources hopes to develop two fast-food restaurants, possibly a Burger King and Taco Bell, near the Exit 72 area.
Tri-Mountain holds county permits to place "approximately" 11,000 cubic yards of fill material on 10 acres, to lift the eateries above floodwaters.
County officials acknowledge the February 1996 flood inundated the property, but say county regulations allow it to be developed.
"Yes, some flood elevations will increase, but that's what the flood insurance program is based upon," said Mike Zengel, county Community Development Director. "It's not a zero-rise program."
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Gernhart said he drives by the project weekly and has opportunity to see it firsthand.
"We have specific concerns and issues," he said. "We don't want water to be dumped on our property or any increase in stormwater to be dumped on our property. I'm not saying there's definitely a problem, but it's something we'd like to talk about."
Tri-Mountain Resources officials could not be reached for comment Friday.
Workers at the site have said the dike is really the first stages of a fill-material "pad," that will eventually cover the entire 10 acres.
"I look at it right now, and it looks like a dike," Gernhart said.
Fresh concerns from an outside agency didn't exactly thrill county officials.
State Fish and Wildlife officials last year raised concerns over threatened salmon, bald eagle and osprey habitat.
Responding to concerns, the county withdrew a determination two years ago that the project would not have a significant impact on the environment. The county reissued the State Environmental Policy Act analysis later, however, with the same conclusion.
Opponents Tammy Baker and Dan Smith — who live across the Newaukum River and downstream from the project — appealed the county's revised analysis and lost. They did not appeal further.
"The whole field fills up full of raging water," Baker said. "I mean, it's a current through there."
She expressed concern the filling could potentially worsen flooding, harm freeway bridges and ultimately aim the stream at her property.
"It's going to be just like a fire hose," she said.
Zengel suggested the state ought to be able to demonstrate it has permitting authority if it plans to intervene in the project.
"The county, at least as far as we know is the decision-making agency for the project," Zengel said.
Gernhart acknowledged the state does not have permitting authority over the project, but he said his concerns remain valid.
"Regardless of whether we're a permitting agency or not, we are still responsible for (the freeway)," he said.
Floodwaters in 1996 buried I-5 near Chehalis, ran over Rush Road and under the adjacent freeway overpass which sits near the development site.
A Nov. 12 hydraulic-engineering analysis by Pacific International Engineering predicted the Tri-Mountain project would displace 33 acre-feet of water and raise flooding about 7 inches upstream of the project.
Zengel said he will attempt to meet next week with DOT officials to discuss their concerns.
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John Henderer covers county government and environmental issues for The Chronicle. He can be reached by e-mail at jhenderer@chronline.com
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