OAKVILLE — The recently formed Chehalis Watershed Cooperative will look to secure some, if not all, of the state’s $1.32 million appropriation to the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority in the Legislature’s capital budget for flood mitigation projects in the lower basin.
The group, which met Wednesday at the Chehalis Indian Reservation, will talk with the governor’s office and the state’s Office of Financial Management to parse through legalese in the budget that may give them a stake in the funding.
The state’s capital budget includes this key clause: “... The appropriations are provided solely for the Chehalis basin flood control authority or other local flood districts.”
Though technically not a flood district, the Cooperative, made of up of the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation and Thurston and Grays Harbor counties, says the “other districts” segment gives them an opportunity to lay claim to some of the state funding.
“The funding source is open to any group, it seems,” said the Cooperative’s chair, Mark White, natural resources director for the Chehalis Tribe.
The Chehalis Watershed Cooperative held its first meeting Wednesday at the Chehalis Tribe’s community center. Outside of electing White to the position of chair and Grays Harbor County Commissioner Terry Willis as vice chair, ideas of how to solve flooding in the short-term were batted around before discussion arose about how to move forward with any project.
Thurston County Commissioner Karen Valenzuela said the state appropriation is just one of the funding sources the group is looking at. She and White said the group’s success doesn’t hinge on whether it secures a chunk of the $1.32 million.
“Whether they (the Flood Authority) like it or not, this is a viable group that will continue,” White said.
Members of the Flood Authority, including city officials and Lewis County leaders, were incensed after Grays Harbor, Thurston County and the tribe secretly created a separate group that is actively seeking the same state funds they were given. The Authority removed Willis from her post as chair of the group in the aftermath during last month’s meeting, a meeting she was unable to attend due to being involved in a minor car accident earlier that morning.
White said the two groups aren’t at odds with one another, even though the Cooperative is seeking the same limited funding as the Flood Authority.
“I don’t want to say we’re going to compete,” he said. “But you have two different groups with two different ideas.”
The Chehalis Tribe has removed itself completely from the Flood Authority, citing a belief that the group is only interested in creating an earthen dam above Pe Ell as the basin’s sole flood solution. White said the focus of the Cooperative will be on projects that can have an impact on reducing flood damage in the short-term. The Flood Authority holds its monthly meeting today in Chehalis.
“We have projects out there that we think will provide more than studies,” White said during Wednesday’s Watershed Cooperative meeting. “I’d like to get some projects going instead of just talking about unrealistic ones.”
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Marqise Allen: (360) 807-8237
