In response to John Koster’s letter, “Put emotions aside, use common sense” (Dec. 20), I would like to add:
I am in favor of revisions to the building codes in the floodplain. I, too, see permits being issued for areas that are directly in the path of rivers in Snohomish County.
However, there are human factors at play that aren’t being discussed. The fertile, flat valleys were formed by the river moving back and forth in the process known as “meander and migration.” After the valleys were settled, human management of this process began. Loggers and gravel companies were issued permits to remove logjams and gravel. These were done to limit the meander and migration, so as to limit property erosion and flooding. Notice I said limit, not eliminate.
Since the early 1990s, strong environmental and tribal forces have worked in the Department of Ecology and the Department of Fish and Wildlife to stop the removal of these logjams and gravel bars. Consequently, the riverbeds are filling with gravel and logjams, causing the river to move, bringing in more gravel and sediment. It doesn’t take a scientist to figure out that flooding will become more frequent and severe due to these changes to river management, and that is exactly what is happening.
We must either go back to using human management, using new technology, to keep flooding and erosion to a minimum, or move people and properties out of the valleys and allow the rivers to take the valleys back to their pre-human state.
For the state agencies, environmental and tribal interests and, most importantly, our governor to put their heads in the sand and pretend that the above is not happening is criminal to those people and landowners who have paid their taxes faithfully.
Thanks to John Koster for having the courage to speak the truth to his constituents in Snohomish County.
LORI KRATZER
River Resource Trust
Arlington
n emergency shelter
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