As the proposed water retention facility near Pe Ell moves into its next design phase and environmental impact studies, the Local Area Non-Dam (LAND) Alternatives Steering Group submitted its final proposal for other flood mitigation projects to the Chehalis Basin Board at its monthly meeting on Thursday morning.
Brian Stewart, Cascades to Olympics program manager for Conservation Northwest and a member of the LAND Alternatives Steering Group, gave a presentation to about 30 county residents, which was hosted by the Lewis County American Association of University Women (AAUW) at The Gathering Place at Stillwaters Estates on Thursday evening.
During that presentation, Stewart explained that of the four possible proposals LAND considered over the past few months, the steering group ended up settling on the fourth and final proposal — a combination of the first three.
“We made a consensus to the (Chehalis Basin) Board that we want all these interventions,” Stewart said. “We want levees, we want day-lighting on China Creek, we want bridges, we want a diversion built. We want so much stuff, it is a little ambitious.”
He also said LAND was formed out of calls for more holistic flood mitigation efforts focused on fish-friendly solutions that also reduces flooding impacts to residents and businesses within the Chehalis Basin.
One attendee said the proposal is expensive, with cost estimates ranging between $1.6 billion and $2.3 billion, but also provided economic growth opportunities.
“That’s the interesting part. The dam is pretty expensive, but the dam doesn’t create a ton of jobs. The dam has to be funded by one source,” Stewart said. “Diversions, changes in bridges, restoration, there are hundreds of funding sources and tons of jobs for a long time. It’s about investment, too.”
He also believes the LAND proposal protected just as many houses, if not more, than the proposed water retention facility.
As the proposal contains everything LAND was initially proposing in its other three options, it includes:
• Building safe structures along with floodplain management to recreate how the rivers flowed before the floodplain was developed. Safe structures include ensuring land owners have flood insurance, utility relocation, flood proofing, structure elevation and voluntary buy-outs with relocation assistance.
• Creating water flow conveyance and diversion by digging a 700-foot-wide, one-mile-long water diversion passage around Providence Centralia Hospital with associated bridges.
• Creating 20.4 new miles of levee expansion as well as day-lighting China Creek in downtown Centralia.
Stewart said the Chehalis Basin Board seemed open to the proposals still, but can pick and choose which parts of the proposal it actually wants to pursue.
“(The board) is going to want to go through this and maybe pick it apart, maybe choose some stuff, and they can do that and it’s totally viable,” Stewart said, later adding, “But what we want as environmentalists, people trying to see the holistic approach, is for them to continue to develop this process. The dam had almost a decade to be developed.”
Cost estimates for the water retention facility range around a billion dollars, he noted.
Stewart added another benefit of the LAND proposals is some of the solutions could start immediately, while the water retention facility is still in the design and environmental impact study phase.
For more information on the LAND proposal, visit https://www.chehalisbasinland.com/.
The LAND Steering Group is composed of a member from each of the following organizations: the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, the Economic Alliance of Lewis County, the City of Centralia Planning Commission, the Wild Salmon Center, the Quinault Indian Nation, Western Water Futures LLC, the Maughan Family Farm, American Rivers and Conservation Northwest.
Third party partners of LAND include MIG Inc., CollinsWoerman, ECONorthwest, Community Attributes Inc., Stowe Development & Strategies, GeoEngineers, Northwest Hydraulic Consultants, COWI North America and Stillwater Sciences.
