Corps: No pipes across dike

Wahkiakum County commissioners this week reported dissatisfaction with recent rulings by federal agencies, and they plan to seek help from federal elected representatives.

In a ruling that could have widespread affects on development on Puget Island, the US Army Corps of Engineers has stated that it will allow no more subterranean pipe crossings in the Island dikes.

In another ruling, Corps officials have informed the county that it considers the work done to protect the eroding Steamboat Slough Road dike last September to be illegal. While the agency will pursue no penalty, it will give county projects closer scrutiny in the future, said county Public Works Director Pete Ringen.

Ringen also reported that staff of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Fisheries) are going to require silt curtains, diapered equipment and food grade vegetable oil in all hydraulic equipment lines for when the county upgrades the Puget Island ferry landing.

The ruling against pressurized conduit in the dike was in response to a Puget Island couple's application to construct two parallel water intake lines.

"The previous practice of allowing pressurized conduits to penetrate the levee embankment section above the design flood elevation and below the top of the completed levee section is no longer allowed," said the letter, signed by Donald R. Chambers, PE, chief, Engineering and Construction Division.

The island water main is located inside the dike; people building houses outside the dike have run lines through the dike for connections.

Also, people building outside the dike are sometimes required to have their septic drainfields inside the dike, and they must run a line to the drainfield.

"This just shut down all construction outside the dike," Commissioner George Trott commented upon learning of the ruling on Tuesday.

In a letter from District Engineer Col. Michael McCormick, COE spokesman Daniel J. Martin said the Corps has investigated the work done to repair the Steamboat Slough dike last September and found it to be illegal because it was done without the county obtaining a Department of the Army (DA) Permit.

"Based on our evaluation of this violation and our available resources, I have decided not to take any enforcement or permitting action regarding this violation," the letter says. "However, the work will remain unauthorized, which could affect your ability to obtain a permit from us for future work on your property, including maintenance or repair of this unauthorized work."

County commissioners last year authorized Ringen to proceed with the dike repair. Ringen had applied for a DA permit in 2005, and by August 2007, the permit still hadn't been approved, and erosion cause by wind and ship wakes was eating into the road bed on top of the dike. Following established procedures, commissioners passed a resolution declaring an emergency, notified the Corps, and completed the project in less than two days.

Senator Maria Cantwell visited the county at that time, and commissioners and county staff took her to see the erosion.

Ringen and Commissioners Trott, Dan Cothren and Blair Brady also expressed frustration with the strict guidelines being proposed for construction of the ferry landing.

The guidelines include:

--A silt curtain will be placed at mean higher high water to minimize the amount of material entering surface waters. The silt curtain will be deployed at low tide to avoid entraining ESA listed fish.

--Heavy equipment used for construction will be free of external petroleum-based products, and will use food-grade vegetable oil in all hydraulic lines.

--Stationery power equipment such as generators or cranes operated within 150 feet of any stream, water body, or wetland will be diapered to prevent leaks, unless otherwise approved . . .

Trott called the requirements "asinine" and unrealistic. For example, he said, the river's currents and the wakes of ships will render a silt curtain useless.

The commissioners asked Ringen to draft a letter about the three issues for mailing to US Senators Cantwell and Patty Murray and Congressman Brian Baird.

They want a meeting with the federal agencies to go over permitting policies; they have had similar meetings in the past, they said, but federal rulemaking policies change as staff changes in the federal agencies.

"It's just their personal interpretation," Brady said.