After the devastating 2007 flood, I dedicated myself to push for real flood control for our communities. I’ve testified in Olympia, attended practically every flood meeting, and joined with the grass roots group, One Voice.
This is a critical time. People need to be informed. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Gov. Chris Gregoire’s administration have one track — to build 11 miles of levees that may protect Interstate 5 but will definitely leave most of us, from Pe Ell to Aberdeen, to drown.
What’s worse, the Corps’ plan won’t work. The proposed levees have holes (Skookumchuck, China Creek, etc.), and improved water storage at the Skookumchuck Dam seems to have been forgotten — no design has been submitted to TransAlta, the dam owner. The levee plan also means government condemnation of hundreds of private properties.
Centralia Mayor Tim Browning pushes for the levee plan but will the city council support him when hundreds of angry Centralia residents learn that their property will be condemned and a giant dirt wall built in their back yard? Hundreds more will be angry when they learn that their homes and the hospital are outside the levees where more water will be pushed.
Can the city of Centralia’s budget spare millions for land acquisition and levee maintenance?
Levees are a zero-sum game. They protect some while pushing more water onto others. That is until the levees fail, and then people who thought they were safe lose everything.
There is a better solution. Data from Northwest Hydrology and even the Corps proves that if 100,000-acre-feet of floodwater can be stored behind dams, flood levels at Mellen Street will be reduced nearly 4 feet, 2.5 feet at Grand Mound and 2 feet downstream at Porter in Grays Harbor.
This would turn an ’07 flood from a devastating Phase 4 to a minor Phase 1 or 2 flood.
The Corps promises to look at water retention, but it’s scheduled after the levees are built. Truth is, once the levees are built and I-5 is protected, the government won’t have the money or see our need for water retention.
Government is good at stalling. Ideas get talked and studied to death. Citizens, understandably, become distracted by more current events. But this is of great, long-term importance. We must stay focused. There is a better solution and we can succeed — if you help.
Please attend the Corps sponsored open house on flood control, Wednesday, Sept. 30, from 4-7 p.m. at Centralia Middle School. Look for yourself. Ask questions. Make them give you answers. Then let the state, the Corps and the Flood Authority know what you want.
Julie Balmelli-Powe of Chehalis is part of the grass roots group One Voice.
Alocal
The idea that the water retention in the upper watershed has many problems: first is that most floods in the Chehalis Basin originate in the Cascade Tributaries such as the Newaukum and Skookumchuck not from the headwaters near Pe ell. The dams will also cut off the most productive portion of the watershed when it comes to Salmon and Steelhead. The dam will be too tall for a fish ladder so fish will have to be trucked above the dam. The presentation by northwest hydrology had more holes than the Dam idea does. We also have to consider that the type of dam they are suggesting could fail just like the Howard Hansen Dam on the Duwamish watershed that we have all been hearing about on the news. Dams for Flood control have not been successful on the Wynoochee River and they show what kinds of problems we could have if they dam the upper watershed. All in all the Dam idea is not feasible and won't protect us from the majority of floods because they come from different tributaries that don't have the storage capacity except for the Skookumchuck which may have more capacity but not enough to protect everyone like the Northwest Hydrology and the One voice groups want you to think. Please go the meetings and ask questions of the Flood authority Ask Ron Averil about the salmon and Steelhead habitat that will be lost above the dams he seems to not understand how much Salmon and Steelhead bring to the area and what they mean to the people that live here.