Yellow Pages
We have long hoped for a comprehensive, countywide approach to flood protection planning, one that considers the Skagit River basin as a whole.
Progress has been repeatedly stalled by the political challenges of forging a united flood protection strategy. Too often narrow parochial interests have prevented broader cooperation.
After decades of stumbles we should by now have learned that if we don’t start working together we may one day drown together, literally and figuratively.
Mount Vernon and Burlington officials still insist on refuting the Corps of Engineers’ flood elevation data, insisting that the height of a 100-year-flood is lower — and thus less costly — than the figures used by the corps.
Whatever flood protection strategy we adopt, it must be the best option, not just the cheapest.
Some elected officials have not appeared to take seriously the cooperative efforts to move us forward on flood planning.
Mount Vernon Mayor Bud Norris has absented himself from meetings of the county’s Flood Control Zone District Advisory Committee since last year. He has said that he was doing so as a protest against Burlington’s not being included on the committee.
Now that the committee has invited Burlington to join the panel we hope that Mayor Norris will re-engage in the process.
Anacortes Mayor Dean Maxwell has also demonstrated an unhelpful attitude toward the concept of collective responsibility for flood protection.
During a discussion of flood issues at a recent meeting of the Skagit Council of Governments Maxwell said he opposed taxing Anacortes residents because they already pay for storm water management.
The channel that separates Fidalgo Island from mainland Skagit County does not exclude Anacortes from the consequences of catastrophic flooding. For one thing, the city’s entire fresh water supply comes from a treatment plant in the Skagit River delta.
We hope that Maxwell is not implying that anybody living on high ground should be exempted from contributing taxes to our flood protection efforts. We believe he is a better leader than that.
Finally, officials representing Hamilton should not be surprised that their plea for a share of a possible countywide flood tax to help finance their move to the north side of Highway 20 has fallen on deaf ears. Any future countywide tax levy for flood projects can only be in support of a countywide solution.
Furthermore, Hamilton residents themselves seem ambivalent about the move with many expressing their determination to stay put.
The impact of the December 2007 storm on Lewis County gave us a horrifying picture of what a future without adequate flood protection could look like. Interstate 5 was under water for several days, bringing commerce to a virtual halt.
Damage to Lewis County’s transportation infrastructure, buildings, homes and personal property soared into the hundreds of millions of dollars. The estimated damage statewide exceeded $1 billion.
For those who want to quibble over a few feet in establishing where the 100-year flood elevation should be set, let it be known that the U.S. Geological Survey rated the Lewis County flood of 2007 as not a 100-year, but a 500-year event. Our congressional delegation has made it clear that until we have our act together it will be difficult for them to help with the federal share of dollars for any projects. That calls for more united effort here at home.
