Members of the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority visited the Thurston County Board of Commissioners to explain the proposed water retention system on the Chehalis River outside Pe Ell during a work session Wednesday.
The commissioners, who are represented on the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority by Wayne Fournier, asked the presenters about the local tribal involvement, the impacts of the dam holding back water on the ecosystem, and the overall benefits of the project.
The proposed water retention system, called a “flow-through” dam, would only hold back water when flooding is in the forecast.
According to a video created by the Chehalis River Basin Flood Control Zone District in August 2024, the structure would allow the river to flow naturally and fish to swim up and downstream without obstacle “under all but the most severe weather conditions.”
The flood authority visited Thurston County as it has completed 28 projects in the county since its inception in 2008, including several in Bucoda. Thurston County is one local government represented on the flood authority, along with Lewis County, Grays Harbor County and the cities of Bucoda, Oakville, Centralia, Chehalis, Napavine and Pe Ell, among others.
Scott Boettcher, staffer with the flood authority, described the project as “innovative” and like “nothing that you’ve ever seen before” to the commissioners.
“It’s responsive to the kinds of dams we should be building today, not yesterday’s kinds of dams. Also, it never shuts the river off entirely at the average winter flow,” Boettcher said.
Fournier asked the flood authority staff about different tribal groups demanding removal of dams all over the state and how this project would be different. Vickie Raines, chair of the flood authority, said the organization has worked with both the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation and the Quinault Indian Nation.
“Both are supportive of the flow-through dam to be considered. At this point, we’re waiting on a [State Environmental Policy Act] process and an EIS [Environmental Impact Statement] process that will hopefully come toward the end of this year for us to evaluate and see how we move forward,” Raines said. “Can we build the dam? Can we permit it? All these things are to be answered, but it is in our scope of work. We have seven different packages to look at. That’s our homework for the coming year and a half to be able to provide the governor with some responses by the end of 2026 or third quarter of 2026. Both tribes are supportive of doing this work to see what our outcomes are, and they’ve asked for additional science to be included in that. When we get down to the nitty gritty, will they be supportive? It depends upon what some of these analyses show.”
Raines added that the primary goals of the flood retention project is to mitigate flooding and have some flood reduction for people in their homes and businesses while avoiding harm to fish and the Native American culture.
Commissioner Tye Menser asked about what will happen when the dam holds back a reservoir in a severe weather event and the damage done about the dam to the forest ecosystems.
Boettcher said the perspective of many local governments is that the gain is greater than the impacts but that the EIS process will dive into the specifics of the impacts.
“In terms of the impacts to timber and forest land up there, it’s a reservoir that goes back I believe six miles or so. The draft EIS process is doing just what the draft EIS process is supposed to do: to tell you where the issues are,” he said. “There is an issue about burning of log debris, and that’s not on the table anymore. In terms of actual impact for active forest land, it’s not going to be as if it were a highly pristine, untouched area. The EIS process is studying impacts to fish species and mitigating that. The dam has been realigned as a result of the draft EIS. The whole movement structure has been adjusted because of the draft EIS.”
The agenda packet for the commissioners’ Wednesday work session includes a draft resolution of the county continuing its support for a basin-wide solution to flooding and aquatic species restoration. While the commissioners did not vote on the resolution to renew their support during the meeting, Boettcher said the resolution is put forth about every other year so that councils and commissions can still continue their support of the flood authority even through the election of new members.
The Chehalis Basin Board plans to make a final decision on which large-scale project, or projects, it will pursue to lessen the impacts of severe flooding and address fish habitat restoration in the early months of 2026, according to previous Chronicle reporting. At the center of each of the seven combinations of projects to study in depth over the next five months is the flow-through dam, combined with a levee wall around the Chehalis-Centralia airport; the Local Actions Non-Dam Alternative, which is a system of levees around Chehalis and Centralia to protect homes and important infrastructure; and potential changes made to the Skookumchuck Dam ranging from leaving it as is, removing or something in between.
To learn more about the proposed flood-retention project, visit previous Chronicle reporting at https://tinyurl.com/95f8256s.
