Posted on January 30, 2018
By Rose Lundy, TDN.com
A scientific committee Thursday presented its “common sense” decision-making framework for managing Spirit Lake and the Toutle River system.
“Our job was not to make a decision,” Senior Program Officer Samantha Magsino told the 100 attendees. “Our job was to inform decision-making by those with management authority in the region. It’s up to the people that work here to apply the framework and determine the viability of any options that are decided.”
Six members of the 16-person committee gathered at the Red Lion Hotel in Kelso to present their 250-page report, produced by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
Commissioned by the U.S. Forest Service, the $570,000 effort reviewed hundreds of studies and papers about the flooding and geological hazards at Mount St. Helens but did not involve any new research of its own.
The landslide caused by the Mount St. Helens eruption on May 18, 1980, blocked Spirit Lake’s pre-eruption outlet into the North Fork of the Toutle River. Geologists warned that if the lake were allowed to rise, it would eventually breach that blockage and cause catastrophic flooding along the Toutle, Cowlitz and Columbia rivers. In response, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cut a 1.5-mile tunnel under Harrys Ridge to let the lake drain into South Coldwater Creek.
The tunnel opened in 1985. It has needed $7 million in repairs, mostly in the area of an old fault. The tunnel has had to be shut down for repairs, but the lake never rose to a dangerous level.
“Our region was given a real challenge and an opportunity in late 2014 when we learned the Spirit Lake tunnel had been damaged,” Southwest Washington Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler said Thursday. “We had a rare opportunity which we don’t usually have in government, to plan ahead. … I’m really pleased that you guys have provided the framework for the Forest Service to develop something that’s going to be a community based solution that will benefit our region moving forward.”
The committee laid out steps to identify the problem, establish roles for participating agencies, clarify objectives and engage the public.
Susan Saul, who lived in the area during the eruption, said she was expecting more explicit recommendations to address data gaps.
“This just seems like a planning process and I was expecting maybe a little more meat,” she said.
Committee Chair Greg Baecher responded that their main objective was to create a decision framework for local agencies to use.
“I think it’s absolutely true that when you read this report, in retrospect, one could say, ‘My gosh, this is just all really common sense,’” he said. “But maybe common sense needs to be repeated a few times before it’s actually implemented. We think there’s some room for implementation.”
Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson thanked the committee for its efforts but took issue with one comment that safety is less of a priority now than it was 30 years ago.
“I would venture to say if all of this effort is not about the people, then it’s not worth a lot, quite frankly,” Nelson said. “My responsibility is to make sure all you folks are safe. That has to be the foundation, in my view, for every piece of this.”
Longview Port Commissioner Jeff Wilson said he attended the public briefing to learn more about how sediment from Mount St. Helens might be related to increased silt at the port.
“The port would like to be part of the learning process for sediment retention as it relates to silting in our upper berths,” he said before the meeting.
Mark Smith, whose family owned and operated the Spirit Lake Lodge destroyed in the eruption, thanked the committee for its interest in the area.
“When the mountain erupted, we got a lot of money and a lot of attention,” Smith said. “Now it’s 2018 and nobody really remembers all of those things that did occur. We really do appreciate it.”
Source: TDN.com
