Wilson Creek flood study criticized

FEMA renders most of town unusable

WILSON CREEK - Federal officials met with about 20 Wilson Creek residents Tuesday to field questions about the controversial results of a redone flood insurance study that doubled the town's no-build zone.

It means a large part of Wilson Creek's downtown area, all of Main Street and two-thirds of the town's platted area, is "rendered useless," said Wilson Creek Mayor Kathy Bohnet. Even elevated building isn't allowed in that zone.

The first study was redone because the elevation was considered too high, said FEMA program specialist John Graves.

Bohnet said she appealed the most recent study done by the Army Corps of Engineers and contacted Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, and Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Washington, for help.

Bohnet also read a letter at the meeting from Sandi Duffey of Grant County Emergency Management, which called the study an ineffective use of taxpayer dollars.

The floodway - or no-build zone - was widened because of guidelines requiring that an artificial encroachment be factored in, said Kenneth Brettmann, a hydraulic engineer with the Corps.

"I think the previous floodway was erroneously too narrow," he added.

The widened floodway is despite the lowering of base flood elevations in the new study.

Eastern Washington receives less than 10 inches of rainfall annually. The town of Wilson Creek is surrounded by the confluence of Crab Creek and Wilson Creek.

"We feel the study is flawed," Bohnet said. "It renders this land basically useless. There's no compensation for that." The study didn't take into consideration new farming practices or redesigned levees in the area, she claimed.

"Flood insurance is a strangle-hold on people selling property here," she said.

The last flood in Wilson Creek happened in 1957, which resulted from the combination of a snowfall, warm rain and an upstream dam failure that partially aggravated the flood, Brettman said.

According to a power point presentation, the new study collected new topography mapping and a channel cross section and re-computed flow rates.

The new study also extended the starting point of the calculations farther downstream and used observed high water marks from 1957 flood as "reality checks" of the calculations.

Graves said the initial study was done in about 2005 to update flood maps nationwide as part of five-year initiative from Congress. The maps in Grant County were last updated in 1988.

Wilson Creek Town Councilmember Scott Mortimer asked if the study would recognize a current dyking system he believed passed Corps inspection and clear span bridges in the area built above a high-water mark.

Brettman said the levy is still not stout enough for a flood, but the town would receive credit for the bridges.

During a flood, a lot of water could still erode the levy and spill over and flood through the town, he said.

But any given year, there's an estimated 1 percent chance a flood could happen, Brettman said.

"It's arguably a pretty rare event, it really is," he added.