State seeks fix for repeat floods of I-5

Floodwaters in the Chehalis River Valley have covered Interstate 5 three times in 17 years, but officials are still grappling with how to solve the problem.

The Army Corps of Engineers has proposed a $124 million plan that includes higher levees and changes to a dam on the Skookumchuck River that it believes will relieve flooding on the Chehalis, which this week overflowed its banks and covered the freeway with 10 feet of water.

Local officials have worried that the Corps of Engineers plan, while it would protect the freeway, might simply back the water up into other areas and create other problems. The fighting prompted the state to withdraw some money for the work. Congress has financed it, but the biggest part of the needed money has yet to come.

Proponents such as Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, hope this week's deluge will push others to action, but there aren't any guarantees. He has even proposed an alternate transportation corridor to be located out of reach of floods.

Swecker, who got state money for flood control set aside only to see it diverted to other work, said Wednesday: "I'm redoubling my efforts and will try to go at it again. It was just so frustrating. We could have done something about it, and instead we're having another round of devastation." It's not clear that the project would have helped this week had it gone ahead. But the federal government has considered flood-control work in the Chehalis basin since at least 1986.

One mile of the freeway, meanwhile, remained under water Wednesday afternoon as crews began surveying pavement damage. The freeway is not expected to reopen before the weekend, at the earliest.

The river and its tributaries have been flooding for years, at least as long as the 1960s, Swecker recalled. Other floods covered part of the I-5 freeway near Chehalis and Centralia in 1990 and 1996 as well as this week.

The state also has considered plans for simply raising the freeway as much as 12 feet, out of the flood elevations, at a cost approaching $400 million. The corps devised a plan including higher levees along the Chehalis and in the lower reaches of the Skookumchuck. Modifying the dam, the corps said, could create more space in the dam to catch and store flood water upstream.

So far the Army Corps has spent $8 million on the project, for studies and initial design. Congress has kept some money flowing, and when President Bush vetoed federal Water Resources Development legislation this year, it overrode the veto and enacted a measure that continued to authorize the project, without full funding.

Congress is now debating whether to spend another $150,000 this year for additional preliminary work. But two years ago, with locals undecided on action, state legislators shifted $30 million in state gas tax money from the I-5 work to another project. The local sponsor, Lewis County, withdrew its support in late 2006 because officials in Centralia and Chehalis thought the changes wouldn't protect enough people living there.

Some locals wanted the river dredged, but the corps objected, said Chehalis Councilman Rob Fuller. Chehalis Mayor Tony Ketchum said the cities' concern is the plan will keep water off I-5, but it is "just going to spread out more between the twin cities and flood the towns more."

Both Democratic U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Rep. Brian Baird support developing a flood plan. "What's still needed is a final agreement between the cities, the county, the tribes and the Army on how to move forward," said Alex Glass, a spokesman for Murray.

Even if the work had gotten enough money, it may not have been done in time to have stopped all of this week's flooding, said Army Corps spokeswoman Patricia Graesser.

Now some hope this week's floods will spur people to action again.

Swecker has proposed developing an alternative highway, a "commerce corridor" east of I-5 and out of the flood area, as a toll road that could be used by trucks to keep goods moving during the wet season. The route would link south Lewis County to Interstate 90 in Seattle, with exits to three major ports and would cost just under $10 billion, Swecker said.

But first, he and others said they hope this week's weather disasters will be the final push to get some action on the Chehalis problems.

Gov. Chris Gregoire said Wednesday she's convinced the latest closure will finally result in a solution to the flood problems. The freeway, under five feet of water in Centralia, was in its third day of closure, forcing some interstate truckers to detour all the way through Eastern Washington to get to Seattle.

State Transportation Director Paula Hammond said 10,000 trucks and 44,000 passenger vehicles use I-5 through the region every day, and the state economy loses $4 million each day the freeway is shut.

A committee including the two cities, the Chehalis Tribe and Lewis, Thurston and Grays Harbor counties is expected to begin meeting early next year to begin talking again about a solution. That is where the differences must be ironed out, Lew County Commissioner Ron Averill said.

Fuller blamed past inaction on "weak leadership," and Averill said some officials have delayed action as years past between floods. But, "We've got some people in office now that recognize the impasses of the past," Averill said. "I'm personally committed to doing something."