Levee Far From Acceptable

WAITSBURG - The pub- lic works crew for the City of Waitsburg is almost done with a two-year project to remove vegetation from the city's Touchet River levee that would hold back high water and hopefully protect the city from flooding.

However, after the veg- etation removal is finally complete, the city still has a laundry list of to-dos ordered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to bring the levee up to the current requirements. Waitsburg City Ad- ministrator Randy Hinchliffe said there is no solid deadline to complete all of the projects. In a recent report from the corps, the date 2015 is suggested.

However, not completing the work on the levee has some serious consequences that could affect residents' pocketbooks.

If the city's levee, now determined to be "minimally acceptable" by the corps, does not have the required maintenance completed, Hinchliffe said the levee could be de-certified. If it is de-certified by the corps, the Federal Emergency Manage- ment Agency would have to re-draw flood zone maps. After the new maps were completed, likely every piece of property within city limits would be required by the government to purchase flood insurance, he said.

And flood insurance is very expensive, Hinchliffe added. The insurance costs property owners more the lower their property sits.

To prevent de-certification of the levee, the city crew has worked diligently the past two years to remove vegetation from the levee to satisfy one item on the corps' checklist. The funding to do this work comes solely from the city and Hinchliffe could not provide an estimate as to how much this has cost the city. Having the city crew do the work kept costs lower than outsourcing the work, Hinchliffe said, but other larger items that need to be fixed will likely require out- side help that will be more expensive.

In years past, the city had a flood district that as a taxing authority would generate in- come just for levee projects, Hinchliffe said. However, the city council voted in January to not support the re-activation of the flood control group because the council members believed the citi- zens would not support a new tax. In the November 2011 General Election, voters vot- ed down a new tax that would have funded flood mitigation on the Coppei River.

Because big floods in this area typically occur once every 30 years, Waitsburg is not due to have its next flood until 2026. Hinchliffe said "it takes a very unique series of events" to cause a flood like the one in 1996. In the meantime, the city will keep working on the mandated improvements to the levee with the hope of having ev- erything completed in time for the next big flood and to the satisfaction of the corps.

History

The Waitsburg levee sys- tem begins on the left bank of the Touchet River upstream of the Preston Avenue Bridge and ends near the wastewater treatment plant to the west of the city. According to a release from the corps of engineers, the upstream por- tions of the levee were con- structed in 1933 by the Works Progress Administration, which employed millions of workers to carry out public works projects during Presi- dent Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal era, including the construction of public build- ings and roads. The levee system was later repaired by the corps and it constructed the downstream portions of the levee in 1951. That same year, the levee system was trans- ferred into the hands of the city for it to maintain, according to the release.

In 2010, the corps inspected the city's levee system and found it to be "unacceptable." Howev- er, the corps worked with the city and the city came up with a plan to complete levee maintenance to keep it at a "minimally accept- able" rating if the vegetation was removed by 2012.

"Public safety is the No. 1 goal of the National Levee Safety Program," said Herb Bessey, the corps' district levee safety program manager. "We want to make sure levee systems are reliable and do not present unacceptable risks to the public, economy or environment."

The inspections of Waits- burg's levee are completed by the Corps' National Levee Safe- ty Program, more specifically a team lead by a professional engineer. They are conducted every year to make sure the city is keeping up on the levee main- tenance, according to the release.

Recent Report

Waitsburg's levee was evaluated again this summer and was again rated "mini- mally acceptable" overall. The survey of the levee was conducted on June 29 and the corps team saw "continued progress to correct deficien- cies identified during previ- ous inspections," said Gina Baltrusch, the public affairs specialist for the corps.

The report from the corps issued to the city found "substantial progress had been made toward unwanted vegetation."

Hinchliffe said the city's crew will have all unwanted vegetation removed from the levee system by the end of 2012. There was a bit of confusion about extra veg- etation, such as trees, on the banks of the levee because the state Department of Fish and Wildlife had suggested the trees may make for good fish habitat while the corps wanted the trees gone, he said.

Hinchliffe said trees on the levee banks can hurt the structure because if a tree falls and the roots come up out of the ground, the roots can leave a large hole in the levee soil. The water can flow into this new hole and erode the levee, Hinchliffe said.

Now that the vegetation issue is mostly addressed, the corps still has a laundry list of issues with Waitsburg's levee.

From the most recent evaluation of the levee sys- tem detailed in an Aug. 22 report to the city, the team with the corps labeled seg- ments upstream of Preston Avenue Bridge as "unaccept- able." This part of the levee is not being maintained cur- rently by the city and was not inspected by the corps' team, according to the report.

The rest of the levee was rated as "minimally acceptable" because of the ongoing effort by the city to make improvements.

In addition to noting the substantial progress made on removing unwanted vegeta- tion, the report also describes a backlog of other discrepancies including slope stability and erosion and bank cav- ing issues, which the team deemed "unacceptable" in the report.

"If future inspections confi rm ongoing deterioration or active erosion or slumping, it would be difficult to justify a minimally acceptable rating for the overall project," ac- cording to the report.

If the project overall was downgraded, this is when FEMA could come in and require all property holders to obtain flood insurance, as Hinchliffe was describing.

The corps' team said repairs to fix erosion and slumping should be the highest priority and will be next on the list for the city to fix.

After these significant issues are addressed, put- ting more concrete and rock on the banks to protect the levee from wave energy will be next, according to the report, followed by fixing depressions, rutting, culverts and removing a fence, dead brush, a refrigerator, tables and chairs that were found on the levee and reported by the corps team.