Quinault Nation Proposes New Approach to Flood Protection in Chehalis Basin

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Three main options have been under consideration to provide protection from flooding and restore habitat in the Chehalis River Basin. 

The first alternative is to do nothing. 

The second is a dam that would be only used for flood water storage. 

The last option is a larger dam that would keep a reservoir and augment summer river flows with cooler water.

But another alternative may be added to the list as well.

Before the comment period for the environmental impact statement closed on Monday, the Quinault Indian Nation proposed a fourth alternative, a “restorative flood protection approach.” 

The first three options, along with other flood protection and habitat restoration projects including levees and raising homes, will be reviewed in the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement currently underway.

Ecology has asked the Quinault Nation for more information before considering adding it to the EIS for further study.

The approach consists of reconnecting channels by putting wood and sediment in the waterways to reduce stress in the channel, create pools and raise water levels. 

“This process increases that inundation frequency and retention time of overbank flows, in addition to increasing the extent and quality of salmonid spawning and refugia habitat,” according to the Quinault’s proposal.

The proposal states that research shows the work can increase flood storage, reduce flood peak flow rates and downstream discharge and decrease flood stage. 

Brenden McFarland, environmental review section manager for Ecology, said he first heard about the Quinault Nation’s proposal a couple weeks ago.

“The very simple version is they’re looking at restoring natural processes in part for their flood retention benefits, so they’re pushing restoration with the idea that it has flood benefits,” McFarland said. 

He said Ecology hopes to receive additional information and details about the alternative by early November to consider incorporating it in the EIS.



“We’ve already been able to get as far as thinking that the alternative is worthy of consideration in the Programmatic EIS,” he said.

The proposal argues that studies show the proposed dam would inhibit or block fish passage and could also create new floodplain.

The dam is currently proposed to be constructed on the Chehalis River near Pe Ell; the Quinaults’ approach would require work in a larger area.

The proposal acknowledges that both types of dam and the Quinaults’ alternative all require significant initial costs, but says costs and liabilities differ after completion. 

The Quinaults’ plan after work is completed is to let natural processes including reforestation, wood recruitment and beaver modifications take place.

The restorative approach, according to the tribe, would achieve objectives of the Chehalis Basin Work Group, including: increasing aquatic species habitat, restoring salmonid spawning, rearing and sheltering habitat, enhancing human water supplies and improving water temperatures during the summer.

Areas in the floodplain would experience shallow inundation more frequently and some structures would need to be adapted or moved to handle the change.

According to the preliminary scope provided, data collection, field documentation, modeling, private property coordination, final reporting and meetings would cost $2.63 million.

McFarland said Ecology is still gathering and reviewing all comments made during the recent comment period for the EIS.

Calls to the Quinault Nation were not returned by The Chronicle’s deadline.

The tribe has treaty rights on the river, and has opposed flood protection efforts in the past, insisting construction stop in the floodplain.

In 2013, the tribe penned a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee imploring him not to fund efforts by the Chehalis Basin Work Group and the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority.

“We have repeatedly expressed our opposition to such projects in the past and continue to do so now,” Quinault President Fawn Sharp, the tribe’s former managing attorney, said in her letter dated Feb. 26, 2013. “As a co-manager of the Chehalis Basin’s resources with federally-protected treaty rights, the Quinault Indian Nation must be substantively involved in decision-making regarding flood relief measures.”