SSCS Letter to Flood Authority 4112011

Steelhead and Salmon Conservation Society Community Supported Conservation Strategies

Date: April 11, 2011 Chairwoman Terry Willis Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority Chairwoman Willis; The Steelhead and Salmon Conservation Society is writing to respectfully remind the members of the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority that the Northwest Steelhead and Salmon Conservation Society (now the Steelhead and Salmon Conservation Society) submitted two resolutions regarding the work of the Flood Authority. The resolutions are focused on the goals of protecting human lives, health, safety, and property throughout the Chehalis River basin.

The Northwest Steelhead and Salmon Conservation Society submitted NWSSCS Resolution 51810 to the Flood Authority. This resolution addresses the need for:   

A moratorium on development within the Chehalis River floodplain A moratorium on steep slope clear cut logging throughout the Chehalis River basin A focus on the restoration of natural processes within the Chehalis River basin forestlands, wetlands and floodplains.

We recommend the following actions: 

Petition Peter Goldmark, Public Lands Commissioner to: 



Enforce existing timber harvest regulations and best timber harvest management practices to resolve numerous failing slopes in order to protect human lives, safety health and property as well as to protect Washington‟s public owned natural resources.

Establish an immediate and permanent moratorium on steep slope clear cut timber harvests throughout the Chehalis River basin.



Establish an immediate and permanent moratorium on floodplain development throughout the Chehalis River basin



Convene talks with the Governor Gregoire, Representatives Herrera Buetler and Dicks and Senators Murray and Cantwell to include the elements below in order to receive benefits from past infrastructure investment of public money and time.



Assimilate elements of the Basinwide General Investigation, Twin Cities Project, proposed hydropower dam and the ongoing Fish Study



Assimilate site-specific elements regarding the Chehalis-Centralia Airport, Town Center, as well as the recent Lewis County FEMA floodplain map delineations.

The Northwest Steelhead and Salmon Conservation Society also submitted NWSSCS Resolution 11011 to the Flood Authority. This resolution addresses the need for:  

Comprehensive, science based studies to evaluate all reasonable flood damage prevention strategies Studies to undergo unbiased peer reviews via the University of Washington and /or Washington State University

Unfortunately, the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority has spent the vast majority of its time and money (taxpayer funds) to debate a few of the potential benefits and costs associated with a dam(s) in the upper Chehalis River. Dam proponents continue to advocate for extremely expensive investments of future public moneys while acknowledging the proposed dam will not be able to protect I-5 in the event of a recurrence of the 2007 flood. Additionally the dam will not prevent debris and mass wasting in the vast majority of the upper basin from washing downstream again with tragic consequences.

To continue down this path of putting people and property in harm‟s way is to ignore the impending peril.

The Steelhead and Salmon Conservation Society has seen no evidence of any effort by the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority to consider deliberations during public hearings for consideration of either of the above resolutions. Ignoring these viable alternatives to prevent flood related damage in the Chehalis River basin by the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority, the local press and other dam proponents, has led us to express our concerns regarding the validity of the reconnaissance level studies that have been done to date. Even the outside consultants who performed a legislatively

mandated and funded peer review of earlier scoping documents and studies recommended that the Washington State Office of Financial Management not release funds ($900,000) to the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority to conduct the “Fish Study” because of their professional concerns about these studies. This recommendation was ignored.

The Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority is in line to receive another $1.32 million dollars from the Washington State Legislature, in part, so that the „fish‟ study can be completed. We have had and continue to have serious reservations regarding this study. Not only is this study inadequate regarding downstream impacts of the dam on fish, but also it does nothing to address the devastating and unconscionable impacts to fish above the proposed dam.

As has been repeatedly addressed by the Steelhead and Salmon Conservation Society and others, this proposed dam would be built in primary salmon and trout spawning and rearing habitat. The upstream habitat will immediately become uninhabitable for spawning even if upstream and downstream fish passage were included in the dam design.

In the past year since the lifting of the moratorium on floodplain development in Lewis County (including Chehalis and Centralia) and the submission of the two resolutions by the Northwest Steelhead and Salmon Conservation Society, we have witnessed:  



Continued, if not increased, steep slope clear cut logging throughout the Chehalis River basin The Chehalis tribe has resigned from the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority and discussions associated with formation of a Chehalis River basin flood control zone district Quinault Indian Nation has expressed its strong opposition to water retention facilities in the headwaters of the Chehalis River.

The Steelhead and Salmon Conservation Society, again, urges that the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority revisit NWSSCS Resolution 51810 and NWSSCS Resolution 11011 It‟s not too late to demonstrate real leadership and focus on cost effective solutions that will prevent flood related damage throughout the Chehalis River basin. If we pull together the completed and ongoing planning elements and develop a landscape scale plan that covers the entire drainage, including all forest lands, we can attain our goals.

We implore you to use the remainder of your allotted time and money to concentrate the focus of the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority on accomplishing this rather than sunset the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority without presenting the public with a work product that can be built upon over time.

Thank you, Chairwoman Willis.

Sincerely, Ric Abbett President and CEO Steelhead and Salmon Conservation Society Bruce Treichler Vice President Steelhead and Salmon Conservation Society James Wilcox Secretary and Treasurer Steelhead and Salmon Conservation Society