Just In Case The Ground Shakes

WAITSBURG - From a distance, the giant steel structure north of Highway 124 between Waitsburg and Prescott looks like just an- other ag building going up.

Other than its unusual size, there's nothing particu- larly different about the new shop, which is expected to house the big fleet of com- bines and semis belonging to 4MC, the McCaw family's farming partnership - or at least shelter the vehicles in need of repair.

But its contractor and owners will tell you it turned out to be a bit more complicated than they thought to get through the permitting process, in large part be- cause of earthquake safety requirements that went into effect in Walla Walla County three years ago.

Earthquake? Here, in eastern Washington?

"It seems really redundant," said Roman Schmidt, owner of Dayton-based Summit Contracting Inc., which is erecting the 100 x 100-foot structure in partnership with McCaw family members, Tanner Steinhoff and Wilbur Fletcher. A 30 x 30-foot office building will be built alongside it for the administration of 4MC, one of the largest growing opera- tions in the area.

After an initial inspection, the county required Summit and its partners to reinforce the 20-foot-high steel structure with beefier foundation footings, more cement-encased rebar and stronger bolts. Schmidt said those requirements had not been entirely clear from the original verbal communica- tion between him and the county.

The changes added to the project's expense and time- table. And, it got everyone involved scratching their heads about the need for all these new requirements. Just how likely are the chances of a major tremor here in southeast Washington?

According to the Department of Natural Resources, 1,000 earthquakes shake the ground under the state each year, most of them small and benign. But the state has a record of at least 20 damaging earthquakes in the past 125 years.

Most of those big ones were in western Washington, but the largest historic earth- quake in the state, which happened when Waitsburg was just seven years old as a city (1872), occurred east of the Cascade crest near Lake Chelan.

It happened in a wilder- ness area which, at the time, had few inhabitants - just local Indian tribes, trappers, traders and servicemen. Because there were few structures near the epicenter, little information is available about its ground effects, though huge landslides and ground fissures were either reported or later discovered.

And earlier in the 20th century, the earth turned restless a little closer to home when a magnitude 6 earthquake shook our corner of state with its epicenter on the state line near Milton Freewater. The year was 1936, which is considered a recent event in geological terms.

Walla Walla County "has been identified as an area with substantial earthquake potential, as it contains two major fault systems," ac- cording to a Whitman Col- lege analysis. The Wallula Fault Zone and Hite Fault in- tersect at a 90-degree angle just southeast of Walla Walla in the northeastern part of Umatilla County.

Their geological "collision" can cause shaking, differential settlement, fault displacement, landslides and seiches, which are series of accumulating waves in large bodies of water such as lakes. The 1936 state line shaker broke up some chimneys and moved several homes a few inches of their foundations. It caused about $100,000 in damage.

Because of recent geo- logical discoveries pointing to a prominent history of seismic activity, the State Building Code Council in 2010 upgraded Walla Walla County to a stricter D subzero seismic zone, which means the county is suspected to be due for more rattling than previously thought, said Dave Collette, a building of- ficial with the Walla Walla Joint Community Develop- ment Agency responsible for issuing building permits and code compliance.

"We may not have earth- quakes here very often, but when we do they're pre- dicted to be a bit stronger than they (scientists) thought 10 years ago," Collette said.

Because most county residents don't realize they live in an earthquake-prone area, requiring seismic safety measures "can be a hard sell," he said. "People look around and see so many old structures still standing."

The extra precautions, which vary from metal strapping in residential construction to major steel reinforcements and higher-grade materials in buildings like the McCaws' new shop "are sometimes hard for consumers to swallow because of the cost," Collette acknowl- edged. But new buildings and construction techniques have to meet codes for "what looms out there some day."

4MC patriarch and partner Jack McCaw said the new shop was necessary because the company had outgrown its current facility, an old mule barn the family renovated more than three decades ago. The new shop, which will have welding and all sorts of sophisticated mechanical repair facilities, will be three times the old barn's size, he said. "We couldn't get the big rigs in anymore."

When it comes to vehi- cles and their technological complexity, "you don't fix it with haywire and sticky tape anymore," McCaw said. "We have much big- ger equipment now and you have to be able to get your stuff in and keep it in top- notch condition. It all takes maintenance. That's the name of the game."

McCaw took the extra work and time for the build- ing's seismic proofing in stride, saying the company makes sure to follow what- ever new government rules are in place.

"The chance of an earthquake isn't all that great, but if it happens we're covered," he said.