Artist rendering of Flood District's proposed flood retention dam on Chehalis River.
Following the release of the Department of Ecology’s Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed flood retention facility near Pe Ell, which concluded that the dam would harm fish habitat while preventing some flooding for the Twin Cities, stakeholders including the Quinault Indian Nation and Chehalis Tribe spoke out against the project.
In the Chehalis River Basin Flood Control District meeting on Wednesday, District Administrator Erik Martin announced the district would be using a portion of the funding received by the county to hire a communications consultant to tout the project’s benefits.
The Flood Control Zone District will be working with Desmond & Louis Inc., a public relations firm with offices in Winlock and Redlands, California, according to District Chair Edna Fund.
“It’s basically to get the facts out about the project,” Martin said. “One thing, as you’re aware that the EIS did not do, was talk about the benefits of this project. We feel like that’s the district’s responsibility to get the word out to the public.”
He said the district is not refuting the impacts on the environment that were discussed in the EIS, but the goal is to make the public understand some of the benefits of the project.
Earlier this month, the Chehalis Tribe publicly announced it was against the proposed project due to the findings of the EIS, joining the Quinault Indian Nation in opposition. Quinault Indian Nation Vice President Tyson Johnston said during an earlier conversation that the opposition of the Quinault was rooted to what was discussed in the EIS.
“It affirmed all of Quinault Indian Nation’s longstanding concerns,” Johnston said on June 4. “This project is very expensive, it’s going to be detrimental to the environment and it’s going to have such an impact on fisheries that we can’t find any shape or form of it at this time that we feel is an acceptable risk.”
Martin and District Member Gary Stamper both admitted they wish the steps taken to hire the consultant were made sooner.
“We weren’t sure if we had eligible funds for those kinds of things,” Martin said.
Stamper acknowledged the comments made on the EIS and the proposed project have been mostly negative. He said the responsibility of the firm that’s ultimately hired will be to focus attention on what the county perceives to be the positive aspects of the project.
“One of their responsibilities will be to make sure, at every turn, we get out in front of it and say, ‘Hey, you’ve talked about these things, but these are going to be the benefits,’” Stamper said. “The fact is, if there’s no structure that’s going to be built, the bottom line is, those fish runs, in 20 years, they’re going to be gone.”
According to Martin, conversations centered around the importance of progressing the Chehalis Basin Strategy have already been discussed in a meeting with Desmond & Louis.
“There’s a huge benefit to moving forward with both flood protection and habitat restoration together,” Martin said. “They’re locked, by statute, in the RCW, they need to be done together, so people need to understand that, I don’t think that’s widely understood.”
Fund pointed to the state of the fish runs in the area without any action.
“They’re on a tough road anyway without a water retention facility,” Fund said.
Newly-appointed district committee member Frank Corbin said he wants to see innovative solutions for the county’s flood problems. He hopes that includes the implementation of the dam, as well as the environmental restoration projects.
“I grew up in the Northwest,” Corbin said. “I am a lover of fishing, I am a lover of nature, but I am also a believer that our science has improved over the decades to be able to design a flood retention facility that can accomplish the job of holding back flood waters and in addition, at the same time, be able to do what we can to restore native habitats.”
