Board seeks right-of-entry cooperation

Wahkiakum County commissioners on Tuesday discussed the future of the county's four flood control zone districts (FCZD) and how to handle land owners reluctant to participate in beach nourishment projects.

Commissioners have established the districts in order to organize and finance projects to place dredge spoils on eroding beaches at Cape Horn and on Puget Island. The county is working with consultants to obtain permits for projects at Cape Horn and East Sunny Sands.

County officials have also asked property owners in the districts to sign right-of-entry easements to allow dredge crews to work along the shoreline. Officials want all land owners in a district to sign the easements so that there is a large, contiguous area for sand deposition.

However, property owners object to the language in the easements, saying it is too vague and would allow dredge crews to have access to an entire parcel.

So far, said Beth Johnson, clerk of the board of commissioners, only 49 of 111 easements have been signed and returned.

Commissioners have been working with the US Army Corps of Engineers to modify the permit language; they'll contact unsigned property owners with the new language when it's available.

Johnson said at least four property owners, two at Cape Horn and two on Sunny Sands, have said they'll refuse to sign the easements, and that could impact the goal of having a large, contiguous disposal site.

"If they do not change their minds, that could cannonball the whole thing," said Commissioner Blair Brady. "The Corps has said there would be no sand if it's not contiguous."

"I think we need to talk to them; to go to their houses and explain what we're trying to do," said Commissioner Mike Backman.

Holdout property owners would leave the commissioners searching for a way to get the easements.

Brady hopes the county could declare an emergency and have the work authorized.

"If we don't have that contiguous situation, in my mind, we're in an emergency situation," he said.

However, Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow wouldn't give the county the legal right it seeks to overrule the objecting property owners. Pursuing that course could lead to lawsuit, and Bigelow predicted the Corps wouldn't conduct a disposal project in the contested area.

"We could condemn the easement," Bigelow suggested. Objecting property owners might sue to stop that, but it would be futile to fight the condemnation.

"The problem with that is that it would take time," he said.

The group identified no solution to the problem.

Meanwhile, the county's consultants should have permit applications and environmental analyses finished by next week so they could be submitted for review.

That agency review could take an undetermined amount of time, said county Public Works Director Chuck Beyer. And at one point, the county will have to hold a 90-day review of the shoreline management permit for the project, meaning that the land owners experiencing severe erosion will probably have to wait till 2017 sand.