Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority

The Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority is a state government program that oversees the watershed of the Chehalis River in Washington state. The commission focuses on flood control and river health, as well as habitat restoration, with particular attention to native plants, fish, and other aquatic species. It partners with various non-profits, local organizations, Native American communities and tribes, and other state and federal government agencies, often through its program, the Chehalis Basin Strategy.

The strategy, begun in 2016, has focused on habitat restorations, specifically on aquatic ecosystems and native vegetation. Over one hundred projects have been funded through the authority and strategy that include the removal of man-made obstacles that prevented fish migration, provided plantings of trees and shrubbery around creeks and tributaries that help increase biomass while lowering water temperatures, and purchasing of land near watersheds for permanent protection.

With a wide agreement on protecting local ecosystems, especially salmon habitat, migration routes, and spawning areas, competing proposals of various support and opposition have been introduced in the 21st century to solve the ongoing mission to mitigate flooding in the Chehalis River basin. A main component of the authority's flood control initiative is the creation of a dam in Pe Ell, Washington that focuses on protection and improvements of local habitats. Competing proposals, offered by tribal communities and citizen groups in the region, rely on natural corrections to the floodplain, including heavy biome restoration in the basin as well as the prevention of future construction in the watershed.

Chehalis River

The Chehalis River Basin encompasses over 3,400 miles (5,500 km) of creeks, rivers, and streams, and is a biome for indigenous amphibian and aquatic species, especially salmon, as well as mammals and birds, some of which are listed as endangered. The watershed is recognized as the second-largest river basin in the state.

Flood history

See also: Flood history in Chehalis, Washington

Based on historical accounts from the Chehalis people and early non-Native settlers, seasonal flooding in the basin was considered to be normal and cyclical. Indigenous tribes did not build or maintain permanent structures in the floodplains and the first settlements in the 1800s were constructed on higher elevations. With the introduction of railroads in the 1870s, and a subsequent increase in timber harvesting due to the new rail systems, denuded forest land around the Chehalis River led flood waters to be mostly contained in deeper valleys and channels. Though some floods continued to occur, they were sparse enough that flood control measures were considered too costly and unnecessary. Development in the floodplain began in the early 1900s, and by the late 20th century, floods became more severe and more numerous.

Flood control

Flood control and concerns for the Chehalis River and its watershed is managed by the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority, which is overseen and funded by the Washington Department of Ecology Office of Chehalis Basin (OCB). The OCB, which began after legislative action in 2016, formally represents the Chehalis people and the Quinault tribes, as well as communities and counties that lie within the Chehalis watershed. The OCB was formally created in 2017.

In 2010, the flood authority implemented the installation of an online flood warning system available to residents in the Chehalis basin. Known as the Chehalis Basin Flood Warning System, it expanded a sensor network already in place, providing information on rainfall and temperature, as well as additional gauges. Alert warnings are sent via email and provide information on 13 rivers in the area. The system won the 2023 National Hydrologic Warning Council (NHWC) Operational Excellence Award.

A comprehensive study, known as the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, was released by the Department of Ecology in September 2016 and detailed four options, titled "Alternatives", on flood control and the creation, protection, and restoration of aquatic habitats in the Chehalis River basin. Though the report agreed with long-standing ideas and proposals of local flood mitigation and ecosystem protections, the introduced options were also based on financial and timelines costs, as well as funding and community willingness. The alternatives included a dam and reservoir in Pe Ell, levee and dike builds, the purchase of land to create "non-structural flood protection", or allowing the upper basin and floodplain to return to a more natural state, allowing natural processes to prevent future flood issues. The most expensive options could cost as much as $1.8 billion, despite the report noting that a failure to reduce flooding in the basin over a 100-year span could potentially lead to $3.5 billion in losses.

Chehalis Basin Strategy

Counties within the Chehalis River basin, various other regional governments, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), in association with Native American tribes, environmental groups, scientists, and local citizens, organized a partnership in 2014 named the Chehalis Basin Strategy (CBS) to propose and research a combination of plans along the Chehalis River to mitigate flooding and to restore aquatic habitat, particularly for local Chinook salmon. The CBS is under the administration of the Office of Chehalis Basin (OCB).

The initial proposal outlined several flood control reduction measures, with downstream levee improvements particularly at the Chehalis–Centralia Airport, and a flood retention dam in Pe Ell which is planned to limit catastrophic damage from 100-year floods within the Chehalis River Basin. The projects are to be carried out in three phases.

First phase

The first phases of the strategy began in 2012 and declared achieved in the early 2020s with a combined 140 flood and habitat projects completed at a cost of $152 million. One of the first projects included the construction of evacuation routes and farm pads (a type of fenced, dirt pen) on farmlands that were susceptible to floods. Due to flooding from the Great Coastal Gale of 2007, design plans began in 2011 to help mitigate future farm losses, especially for livestock. A combined 23 pads were built in Lewis and Gray counties by 2017 at a cost of $866,000 and no loss of farm animals or farm equipment were recorded after a large January 2022 flood event.

As part of early funding in the mid-2010s of $50 million, Grant, Lewis, and Thurston counties received disbursements of $6.0 million to begin work on fish passages, including eight culvert removals that opened over 60 miles (97 km) of waterways in Lewis County.

Projects in the early phases that focused on specific cities, towns, and communities include a new pump house in Hoquiam that replaced an ineffective, aging pump that was to be used to as a starting point for future levee builds. Log jacks were installled in Montesano that helped increase the riverbank of the migrating Wynoochee River, which was threatening the local wastewater plant that, during flooding, would have inundated the community with sewage runoff. The fortification also increased the habitat of aquatic species and extended the operating life of the plant by several decades.

Improving or repairing aquatic ecosystems has been widespread in the basin and has included projects focused on interconnecting creeks, streams, and rivers. Efforts include the Stillman Creek Restoration Project near Boistfort, focusing on erosion control, habitat restoration, and to restore the floodplain and course of the waters. Several undertakings are part of the Aquatic Species Restoration Plan (ASRP), a sub-program of the CBS. Works include fish passage restoration of the Middle Fork Wildcat Creek, a Cloquallum Creek tributary in McCleary. Additional ASRP restoration projects include fish passages in Elma and Oakville, and habitat improvements to creeks and their watersheds within Lewis County and the city of Chehalis.

Second and third stages

The second stage of the program was implemented soon thereafter and is focused on long-term solutions and strategy for flood control and financial backing of future tasks. The final phase is planned to begin in the mid-2020s and will target construction, additional financing, and devising long-term structural government oversight. The 2021 state legislature authorized $70 million in funding for a variety of additional strategy projects.

During the early 2020s, continuing projects similar to the first stage of the strategy continued. The authority granted the city of Centralia approximately $2.3 million towards ongoing work to restore fish habitat and improve flood control at China Creek. Due to urban construction, the creek had become a headwater for floods that affected the downtown core and surrounding residential areas.

Long-term projects

Part of the basin strategy is to remove artificial barriers and to restore forests and woodlands near the Chehalis River and its tributaries, to promote the habitats of aquatic species such as salmon, steelhead, and trout. As of 2023, the project, led by the ASRP, has worked with an ongoing WDFW program begun in 2005 that has removed or reengineered 81 man-made impediments in the Chehalis basin at a cost of $27.6 million.

Proposed dam

A group of citizens formed a proposal for the use of two dams in the basin after the floods produced from the Great Coastal Gale of 2007. One was to be located near Boistfort, Washington and the other in Pe Ell. Though the Boistfort dam did not materialize, the CBS has continued to propose the Pe Ell dam that would temporarily be used as a reservoir to withhold excess runoff during heavy rainfall or snowmelt situations. As of 2020, the structure was planned to be 270 feet (82.3 m) in height and was to be built in a canyon located in forest lands used for commercial timber harvest. The project, if constructed, was estimated to lower 100-year flood waters in the Twin Cities by over 1.5 feet (0.5 m) as well as protect 25% of buildings that were at-risk during a major flood event.

The waters would be released after the threat of a flood has eased, or the river basin has been determined to withstand additional flow. The plans include the construction of fish passages. Studies of the build of the dam has been determined to be of positive economic value to the region as major flooding events would be significantly reduced while protecting infrastructure and various populated areas.

The flood retention project has also shown to likely produce negative returns, such as disturbances to aquatic habitat, water quality of the Chehalis River, as well as adverse affects on recreation and Native American lands and culture. Based on a 2017 environmental impact statement, when the dam's reservoir is full, the waters would cover 847 acres (343 ha). Additional concerns were broached, such as the necessary removal of 90 percent of trees in the holding area, increased water temperatures, the loss of spawning areas, and eventual degradation of the food chain. Cost estimates, which include construction and mitigation projects, were projected at over $600 million. The dam would also create a loss of use for recreation, such as kayaking and fishing. The dam is predicted to provide little downstream benefit to communities in Grays Harbor County and only moderate reduction of flood waters to the lands of the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation.

Though the dam proposal has been endorsed by the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority, it has been rejected by several groups. The Quinault Indian Nation expressed concerns over the loss of fish ecosystems, specifically spring and fall Chinook salmon, a cultural staple of the indigenous people. The nation has proposed alternatives for a water retention system, with a focus on repairing habitats for native species of fish. With approximately 75% of tribal lands in the basin considered floodplain, the Chehalis and Quinault communities created a flood plan in 2009 that avoids structural and engineered systems to control flooding, rather using natural elements and ecosystems that would focus on "river movement, flooding and erosion, rather than confining the river or changing its flows." An addendum to the plan was released in 2020, adding in a concentration on the buying-out of private and commercial properties in the floodplains.

Efforts on the study and implementation of the dam were paused by order of the governor, Jay Inslee, in July 2020. With growing concerns over the negative aspects the dam would have to the natural ecosystem, the authority, strategy, and connected partners and government entities were required to find alternatives to the dam, specifically non-structural, natural remedies that would protect the watershed's aquatic habitats. The directive allowed the groups time to propose such alternatives in time for the 2021 state legislature session, and asked that communication and participation with tribal communities be improved. During the same year, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) completed their own environmental impact statement. Known as the Chehalis River Basin Flood Damage Reduction Project EIS, it proposed over 60 alternatives to flood control methods in the basin and it included impact studies of a dam build.

Connected projects

After the discovery of the Oregon spotted frog in the watershed of the Black River in Thurston County, Washington, a species thought to be extinct in the area, a cooperation between the non-profit Capitol Land Trust and a landowner purchased 60 acres (24 ha) around the Blooms Ditch tributary in order to establish a habitat for the amphibian. Along with an additional acquisition of 60 acres (24 ha) and over 4,000 feet (1,219.2 m) of the ditch, the project created the Blooms Preserve. Fourteen Chehalis Basin Strategy partners combined to control invasive plants, the construction of ponds to hold water throughout the year, and the planting of native vegetation, while continuing to improve the riparian habitat to provide a healthier habitat for fish and other aquatic animals.

The authority and strategy work with the Chehalis Lead Entity through Chehalis Basin Salmon Restoration and Preservation Strategy, a habitat restoration program specific to salmon recovery and the preservation of salmon environments.

External links

• USGS Chehalis River Basin map
• Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority
• Chehalis Basin Strategy - Website
• Chehalis Basin Strategy - Washington State Department of Ecology
• Chehalis Lead Entity
• Chehalis Basin Flood Warning System (FWS)
• 2010 Chehalis River Basin Comprehensive Flood Hazard Management Plan
• 2016 Washington State Department of Ecology - Chehalis Basin Strategy EIS Executive Summary