Terrace seeks federal, state aid for storm damage

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE

Four pipes have caused this city — and some of its residents — lots of headaches.

Just ask John Beell.

He lives in a house on 230th Street Southwest, adjacent to the city’s Ballinger Lake Golf Course.

On Dec. 3 last year, the day about half a foot of rain fell within 24-hours, Beell spent the day wading through a flood. Just feet from the house, Hall Creek usually meanders along its north to south route at the western edge Ballinger ballfields and the golf course on its way to Lake Ballinger.

That day, the creek became a raging river, pushing stranded debris and water over its banks and overwhelming four culverts that guide the creek under 230th Street Southwest. A metal fence rims his property, next to the creek.

“When I got out here, we had to cut the fence away to release the pressure,” he said.

City utility crews arrived with trucks full of sand, and neighbors pitched in, helping to make hundreds of sandbags that served as a wall of protection against the raging waters.

“It was just roaring through here,” Beell recalled. “I even saw a cat swimming in it.”

For the most part, Mountlake Terrace escaped major flooding, though residents along 230th Street Southwest, just west of the golf course, saw water pooling in their front yards.

To fix those culverts, the city has applied for $500,000 in aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state of Washington.

“We’re hoping that FEMA will provide the necessary state and federal funding that will allow us to make the necessary improvements that will mitigate the flooding in that particular area,” said city manager John Caulfield.

The federal agency, which would provide 75 percent of the total funding, has discretion as to how much of the request to fund. The other 25 percent of the total would come from a matching split between the state of Washington and the city, Caulfield said.

Will Van Ry, the city’s engineering services supervisor, said $500,000 in aid would allow engineers to replace the existing water pipes with a box culvert, which provides a natural, gravel-strewn stream bed that is fish-friendly. Indian Tribes have complained for years that culverts often shut salmon out because of their narrow openings. No salmon swim in Hall Creek now, but Van Ry said “there’s always that potential” to restore fish capacity. Besides, trout do swim through the pipes.

“Generally, what they want is a large opening on the bottom, so you have typical stream bed sediments on the bottom and so fish don’t have to wiggle up this pipe,” Van Ry said.

Mike Shaw, the city’s storm water program manager, said those old culverts have been overrun by high water before, in the fall of 2003 and in 1996.

“Because of the high water, we have historically put out sandbags to keep water from getting into nearby property,” he said.

Some of the sandbags are still there, parked along either side of 230th Street Southwest near the creek. “We had water in the backyard,” Beell said.

“I go fishin’ in Alaska and it felt like a river.”