Chehalis Basin flood authority outlines local projects, introduces flow‑through flood control concept

The Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority told Thurston County commissioners on July 16 that a mix of local projects, a basin warning system and a proposed “flow‑through” flood control facility together form the basin’s current strategy for reducing flood hazard and protecting aquatic species.

The authority’s staff member Scott Boettcher summarized the authority’s work, saying the body was created after the February 2007 storm that caused about $900 million in damage and that the local projects program has completed roughly 150 projects since 2012 and spent about $90 million, primarily on community‑level flood protection.

Boettcher and Vicki Raines, chair of the Flood Authority, described types of projects funded: small structural measures such as grassy swales (costs cited at about $400,000–$500,000 for one project protecting a wastewater treatment plant), pump station and levee work at Chehalis‑Centralia Airport (about $2.3 million), engineered log structures to protect the Montecena wastewater…