The Centralia City Council chambers were packed Tuesday as councilors and staff from the Twin Cities met with state and Army Corps of Engineers officials for an update on ongoing flood control projects in the Chehalis River Basin.

    The joint workshop was requested by the city managers of Centralia and Chehalis, who wanted elected officials and technical staff to stay updated on the Twin Cities Project, which calls for 11 miles of levees in and around the two cities.

    But the conversation also drifted toward the Army Corps’ second ongoing project, a general investigation into potential flood control projects throughout the entire basin.

    Councilors from both cities questioned representatives from the Army Corps, Governor’s office and Washington State Department of Transportation on how an ongoing study into dams and water retention could play into the two ongoing projects.

    Bill Goss, the Twin Cities project manager for the Army Corps, reiterated previous statements that while water retention could be included in the recently launched basin-wide study, it could not be included in the Twin Cities project.

    Chehalis City Councilor Terry Harris was among a handful of attendees to ask how the height and width of the levees could be decided upon if the dam was not implemented into the Twin Cities project.

    Keith Phillips, an adviser to Gov. Chris Gregoire tasked in part with coordinating the state’s role in the projects, said local leaders should wait for ongoing investigations to be complete before worrying about combining the two. The Chehalis River Basin is funding a feasibility study into dams above the Boistfort Valley and Pe Ell.

    Meanwhile, the Army Corps is still implementing data from the December 2007 and January 2009 flooding into its models. A timeline presented Tuesday showed that the earliest construction of the levees wouldn’t begin until late 2013.

    “That information will be available before Bill has to say how high the levees have to be,” Phillips said.

    The Army Corps’ basin-wide investigation would consider all potential flood control projects, Goss said, and would be more suitable for considering dams. The scope of work for the Twin Cities project has already been defined, he said, and to change it might alter congressional approval.

    Centralia City Councilor Harlan Thompson asked whether or not the corps would need to implement data from any flood occurring in the next several years, work that might elongate the process even further.

    Phillips admitted any new data would need to be implemented in the Army Corps’ model.

    In responding to another question, Goss said that to implement data from the ongoing water retention investigation into the Twin Cities Project would also take time.

    “We’d basically be stopping or pulling the plug as far as where we’re currently at,” he said.

Ask Flood Questions Yourself

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to bring proposed flood projects before residents next month. Officials from the Army Corps, WSDOT, National Weather Service and the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority, among other entities, will be at three scheduled open houses.

    People will have the opportunity to speak with representatives and managers from federal, state and local agencies responsible for many of the flood planning efforts going on in the basin, according to an Army Corps spokesperson.

    The first will be at Swede Hall in Rochester Sept. 16 from 4 p.m. to  7 p.m.

    A second meeting will be held in Grays Harbor County Sept. 23 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Montesano City Hall.

    The final meeting will be at Centralia Middle School Sept. 30 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

    Eric Schwartz: (360) 807-8245