Commissioners hear flood concerns about Nelson Creek project

Not so fast, Wahkiakum County officials are telling Columbia Land Trust.

Reacting to a warning from Diking District 4 Commissioner Maurice Mooers, county commission Chair Blair Brady asked the land trust to hold up on ditch and culvert work the group is conducting along Nelson Creek.

Mooers said he had learned of the project only by reading about it in the September 2 edition of The Eagle. As a diking district commissioner, he has concerns that the project, if completed as he understood, would channel water into ditches and sloughs along SR 4, and in winter freshets, the area wouldn't drain but would flood the highway and adjacent lands, including the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge for the White-tailed Deer.

After a discussion of the issues, Brady called land trust Executive Director Glen Lamb, who agreed to halt the work until the issues are cleared up.

Part of the project description is to fill in ditches and create a low area that could become a wetland capable of being habitat for juvenile salmon in the Nelson Creek system.

If the land trust filled in the ditches on the Oller Farm property on the north side of the Elochoman River, the drainage system would be destroyed, Mooers said.

"We set up that system years ago and it has worked successfully except in two floods when the Nelson Creek dike was breached," he said.

He also commented that no one had informed him, the only private citizen on the diking district board, about the project and land trust permit application.

"They got the permit, but consideration wasn't given to anyone who knows anything about the system," he said.

County officials acknowledged they had failed to inform Mooers of the project permit applications.

Chuck Beyer, permit coordinator, said he had passed notification to the prosecuting attorney's office and to Public Works Director Pete Ringen, both of whom have roles in the diking district commission.

"I apologize to you, Maury," Ringen said. He added that he had focused on work planned for the southeastern portion of the project, which included a county road culvert, and didn't consider the other plans.

"I thought it was a non-issue," Ringen said.

"I think we need to have some discussion and get them to the table."

Beyer commented that the project plans weren't quite as Mooers had described them.

Breaching the Nelson Creek dike isn't in the permit, Beyer said, and the land trust won't be blocking culverts along SR 4, which would create pooling of water on the east side of the highway.

Where the land trust is currently working is already wetlands, Beyer said.

Commissioner Dan Cothren said he had discussed the project plans with land trust officials some time ago and understood that they were maintaining drainage.

Mooers expressed his overall dissatisfaction with federal government for creating the game refuge, thereby taking working farmland out of production, and for spending money on projects that don't really enhance habitat.

"It's time we stood up and told these people to get the hell out of here," he said, drawing applause from 10-15 people in the audience.