PORT ANGELES — It looks innocuous now, but the Dungeness River can rise quickly and swallow huge swaths of property in a flood.
Property owners and real estate agents should prepare accordingly, Ann Seiter told the three Clallam County commissioners — Mike Doherty, Mike Chapman and Steve Tharinger — on Tuesday.
Seiter, a consultant and former chairwoman of the Clallam County Planning Commission, outlined the Dungeness River Comprehensive Flood Hazard Management Plan in a public hearing. The report makes land-use recommendations for the flood-prone lower Dungeness.
The commissioners will decide whether to adopt the plan later this month.
No public comment was taken at Tuesday’s hearing.
Written comment can be submitted until 4:30 p.m. Friday.
Comment also can be e-mailed to commissioners@co.clallam.wa.us or dropped off at the commissioners office (Suite 4) at the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
The 109-page document can be viewed at the county’s Web site, www.clallam.net.
Seiter prepared the report along with Pam Edens of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe and the 14-member Dungeness Flood Hazard Advisory Committee.
The Dungeness Flood Hazard Advisory Committee consists of tribal officials, conservation groups, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, Clallam County county staff and affected property owners.
“They pointed out numerous times that you can manage the hazards that are in the way of a flood, but you cannot manage the floods themselves,” Seiter said.
The updated plan is designed to inform property owners, real estate agents and area residents of flood risks. It may also help the county receive state and federal grants.
Goals of the management plan include preventing loss of life and property from flooding, integrating flood hazard reduction with habitat restoration, maintaining the river’s varied uses and improving river management.
Updated plan
The county in 2003 received a grant from the state Department of Ecology to update its 1990 Dungeness River Comprehensive Flood Management Plan. That effort hit a wall when the funds ran out.
The updated plan incorporates the latest science and mapping with historical data.
“It’s an advisory document; it’s not a regulatory document,” explained Hannah Merrill, natural resource planner for the county.
Seiter covered broad recommendations from the report.
The general recommendations include:
• Use the best available science to update maps and data.
Since 1990, the Bureau of Reclamation and Byron Rot of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe have collected considerable data on the river’s channel migration zone, or the area where the river meanders from side to side over time.
• Update and amend land-use regulations in the floodplain.
Houses built close to the river and within the channel migration zone are subject to hazards as the river shifts.
“Unlike the Mississippi, the Dungeness is more subject to this type of flood hazard than it is to flooding by inundation where the water comes up,” Seiter said.
• Conduct an inventory of levees.
“Some of the levees on the Dungeness were publicly funded and maintained,” Seiter said.
“There are others that were kind of pushed up with bulldozers by various property owners and don’t function very well.”
• Improve education and outreach to existing and prospective landowners.
“What one landowner along the river does to their property to protect it from a flood can affect people across the river and down the stream,” Seiter said.
Tharinger, whose district includes the Dungeness River watershed, asked Seiter if the science used to determine the river’s meander zone is strong enough to justify the boundary.
Seiter said the science was thoroughly peer-reviewed, and the updated information has “greatly improved what we have.”
Bob Martin, Clallam County Department of Emergency Management program manager, endorsed the report.
“It looked to me like Byron [Rot] used a technically valid approach,” Martin said.
Martin added that most of the dikes along the river don’t provide 100-year flood protection.
“If we’re basing decisions on the presence of those dikes, we should know more about them,” Martin said.
Contract, agreement
In other action, the board signed a contract with Port Angeles-based Aldergrove Construction Inc. for the second phase of the old courthouse boiler replacement project. The $152,000 contract includes pipe insulation and a base unit for a digital control system for the courthouse.
The commissioners also signed an agreement with Built Green Clallam County to implement a coordinated grant with Ecology to reduce construction waste and recycle.
Lakeside Industries Inc. of Port Angeles submitted the only bid for the county’s hot mix asphalt overlay project. The $653,214 bid was referred to the Public Works Department for review.
County Engineer Ross Tyler said the budgeted estimate for the asphalt work was about $600,000.
Meanwhile, the board signed a June 30 bid notice for the completion of the Mount Pleasant Road project. The $500,000 road-widening project will be funded though federal stimulus money for which the Public Works Department applied.
Two commissioners called for a July 7 hearing on the proposed sale of surplus buildings purchased for the dike removal along the Dungeness River.
Tharinger abstained from the vote because he once owned a home near the dike.
Finally, the board called for a June 23 hearing on a proposed ordinance amending parts of the county’s commercial zones and maps for compliance with the Growth Management Act.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
