As the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority focuses concurrently on two projects — one aimed at levees and the other at dams — Lewis County Commissioners are hoping the dueling forms of flood control can eventually be merged.

    The commission voted Monday to endorse a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers from Washington’s 3rd District congressman Brian Baird. In the letter, dated July 17, Baird asked the Army Corps if it could consider eventually combining elements of its ongoing projects with a study into water retention also under way in the upper reaches of the basin.

    The flood authority, comprised of 11 jurisdictions across the basin, voted earlier this year to fund a study to determine if two dams in the upper Chehalis Basin could blunt the impact of chronic flooding and lower peak water levels.

    Meanwhile, the Army Corps is trudging forward on its Twin Cities project and another basin-wide study, both of which have received federal appropriations in the past year.

    Lewis County Commissioner Ron Averill, chairman of the flood authority, said it is the Corps’ basin-wide study that could provide the best vehicle for combining the two ideas in the future.

    “They should be judged against each other,” Averill said of the two projects. “If you don’t have water retention, you will need higher levees. The two play into each other.”

    In July, just after sending the letter, Baird said it was aimed at ensuring all options remained in play for flood control. He said he doesn’t want the issue to slow the Twin Cities Project, which is nearing 35 percent design, but that the ongoing study and previous investigations into water retention dating back to 1982 should be considered.

    “I don’t know how it pencils out economically, that might be the bug, really,” Baird said. “I do think to the greatest extent possible that we should try to consider all options.”

    Lewis County Commissioner Bill Schulte said the letter from Baird and any additional congressional support helps open the door to the possibility of combining elements of the two projects. Schulte, who lives in the Doty-Dryad-Meskill area off of state Highway 6 ravaged by the December 2007 floods, said that levees near the Twin Cities would do nothing for homes and property in the upper basin.

    “Neither project will protect as much of the area as a combination of the two would,” Schulte said.

    The Army Corps’ Twin Cities project manager, Bill Goss, said that the ongoing levee project will not include a look into dams. However, the basin-wide study will consider all options.

    “The Chehalis basin-wide (study) will be looking at the water retention facilities and the report that the Lewis County PUD is generating and any information generated other than that, or in addition to that, that also looks at different types of water retention structures,” Goss said.

    That study, which received its first federal appropriation earlier this year, is just getting off the ground. Averill said the process will provide the flood authority with more time to study dams.

    “The advantage is it gives us more time to look into water retention,” Averill said.

    The Chehalis Basin Flood Authority meets Thursday at 1:30 p.m. in the commissioners hearing room in the Lewis County Courthouse.

    Eric Schwartz: (360) 807-8245