Shoreline patrol costing up to $22K per day

EPHRATA - The Grant County PUD is spending up to $22,254 per day to patrol the riverbank exposed by the drawdown at Wanapum Dam, closed to the public.

As of Thursday, law enforcement personnel have issued seven citations for trespassing since the closure plan was implemented, PUD spokesperson Chuck Allen said.

The PUD is contracting with six different law enforcement agencies to provide security along the river, Allen said, as well as contracting with private firms. The closure affected about 90 miles of shoreline, PUD security member Dick Robert said at a July 8 commission meeting.

The money pays for the law enforcement officers and private security, Allen said, along with the equipment needed for patrol. That includes boats and personal watercraft, air patrol and vehicles patrolling the shore, he said. Robert said that as of July 8, the extra security costs were between $450,000 and $600,000 per month.

"The goal when it comes to patrolling the shoreline is for the officers to inform and educate the public about the closure," Allen wrote. "The officers have been giving people an opportunity to comply with their requests to leave the no-trespassing area. The vast majority of people have complied."

Citations have been issued to people riding ATVs near an archeological site, and people who ignored a request to leave a "well-signed and protected area," Allen said.

Robert said at the July 8 meeting that the shoreline is closed because the riverbank - even though it looks dry - might be unstable, and that the current is moving fast at the surface. In addition, the PUD is required to protect archeological sites, he said, about 100 of which have been exposed by the drawdown.

The water level behind the dam was dropped following the Feb. 27 discovery of a crack in one of the pillars supporting the spillway. The low water decreased pressure on the dam which helped close the crack, Hydro Director Dawn Woodward said.

Portions of the riverbank all the way to Rock Island Dam were exposed, and the shoreline was closed to public access. It's been closed since.

The investigation into what caused the crack revealed an error in the original design calculations, Woodward said, which meant the flaw could exist in all the spillway pillars. As a result, the repair plans include modifications to all the pillars.

That will require the Wanapum pool to remain at low levels until the repairs are completed, which is expected sometime between October and the end of the year.