Seal Slough dike failing

Wahkiakum County Commissioners held a special work session Monday to discuss the ongoing controversy over the damage to Seal Slough and Kandoll Road caused by the Columbia Land Trust and Ducks Unlimited project in 2005.

The commissioners asked all present for a review of last year's meeting on the subject. The commissioners heard from Columbia Land Trust (CLT) Stewardship Manager, Ian Sinks. Sinks told the board that the group had met last fall to discuss the Seal Slough erosion and flooding issue. “We were trying to resolve the erosion and hydrology issues as a result of the Kandoll Road restoration project,” said Sinks.

Sinks said the Columbia Land Trust had a lot of questions but they were waiting on a geotechnical report before they could move forward. Sinks asked Ducks Unlimited engineer John Axford to give the commissioners a report on what had been done.

Axford said that after the conversation in 2006 they went to model Seal Slough in six locations and surveyed various depths. “What we found is that some areas gained height while some areas were a foot deeper due to erosion in the middle of the river,” said Axford.

Brady asked about flow rates. Axford said he hadn’t included the flow rates during his measurements. Brady said he considered the rates an important issue in that they show both river velocity, volume and when scouring does occur.

Delvin Fredrickson of the Grays River Habitat Enhancement District, said his group did take flow rate measurements which show erosion. “The point is,” Fredrickson said, “is that when you look at these graphs, which it took eight months to get, they show consistent scouring in the channel.”

Fredrickson pointed to several different sites of erosion above Columbia Land Trust’s culverts on Kandoll Road. The discussion continued for over an hour between Columbia Land Trust, Ducks Unlimited and Grays River Enhancement District representatives.

“I think it’s safe to say that the Seal Sough dike is in poor shape and experiencing different mechanisms of failure. The cause of that failure is unclear,” said Sinks. Sinks said he wasn’t sure he could say conclusively if it was normal or storm hydrology that caused the failure or if it was a combination of dike construction or maintenance. “I don’t know if we’re ever going to reach a point where we can say this is the precise reason the dike failed,” Sinks said.

Brady asked Sinks and Axford if the issues mentioned would show up in their promised geotechnical report. Axford said he thought they were already in the 2005 report.

The meeting continued and evolved into a discussion of river heights, tidal exchanges and volumes and velocities of water moving through the Grays River at certain times of the year and how water forces have affected river topography.

Fredrickson argued that Columbia Land Trust's placement of two 13-foot culverts on Kandoll Road is responsible for the majority of damage to many of the properties along the Grays River.

Axford and Sinks defended their projects on Kandoll Rd. and Seal Slough.

The commissioners listened to this back-and-forth exchange between Fredrickson and Columbia Land Trust until finally Commissioner Lisa Marsyla said, “Okay, let's find some common ground, otherwise this is all going to wind up in court, which will take years, more money than you have, and many of these properties we're talking about will be ruined in the process.”

The commissioners were firm in their demand that both sides go away from the meeting and come back with some ideas and a plan to resolve the issue. Marsyla and Brady both agreed this argument had gone on long enough and they wanted the whole matter settled.

“Before we adjourn,” said Marsyla, “how much time do we need to then come back with your proposals so we can start looking at some options?”

Both Sinks and Fredrickson were hesitant to give themselves a time limit on deciding the best approach to fix the Kandoll Road flooding problem. “Don’t you think there are enough brains in this room to find a solution?” asked Marsyla.

Sinks suggested CLT put out their alternatives for everyone to look at and then move forward to create a computer model which would allow both sides to judge the effects of the CLT proposal. “I mean you don’t just want to construct something without first seeing if it will work,” he said.

Fredrickson agreed that in some instances the CLT’s computer modeling might work, but not always.

Brady said in the future he’d like CLT’s reports to be more clear and succinct and move beyond the verbiage that says things like “appear to be.”

“I mean really, what the hell does ‘appear to be’ actually mean? It would be nice if you could be more definitive,” said Brady directing the statement to Sinks and Axford.