"Loss of human life would be a real possibility"

County and Tribe narrowly avoid mass-casualty event

It’s more than a road. Towne Road is about politicians’ promises, campaign commitments, and prioritizing public safety over political principles.

Once the Towne Road scandal started unraveling last fall, people understood that returning a road to the taxpayers who had funded it was much more than completing a 0.6-mile stretch of public right-of-way… Towne Road was a window into special interests and their influence on county government.

Now in its third year, the road's closure is a sign of county leaders’ project mismanagement and fiscal irresponsibility. With the massive and costly Dungeness River Off-channel Reservoir Project on the horizon, Towne Road is also a litmus test to see how well project partners Clallam County and the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe work together.

When asked about the Jamestown Tribe breaching the original dike before the County’s new levee was completed, the three County Commissioners (whom you elected and whose salaries you pay) refuse to answer questions. Chairman of the Board, Commissioner Mike French, has said, “I wasn’t here for that,” “I’m not a member of the Jamestown Tribe,” and has instructed concerned constituents to direct their questions to the Tribe.

Initially, the Tribe encouraged questions. At a People’s Forum town hall about transparency held in April, a tribal representative told nearly 100 attendees, “Ron [Tribal CEO Ron Allen] and I will answer any questions from anybody.” CC Watchdog contacted CEO Allen and was instructed to contact the Tribe’s Vice-chair, Loni Grinnell-Greninger, and Natural Resources Director, Hansi Hals. First, the Tribe’s responses to requests began with, “We do not take on these types of requests.” Recently, their tone has changed to, “Current work is our highest priority and we’ll be unable to respond further,” and “This question would be best answered by the County.”

A sovereign nation has no obligation to be transparent and accountable, even when managing and completing projects with your money. The county commissioners could have an obligation to answer reasonable questions asked by the electorate, but without an enforceable Code of Ethics, they aren’t obliged — ignoring county residents isn’t against the law.

Fortunately, Washington State voters knew that transparency begets accountability, so they passed a ballot initiative called the Public Records Act in 1972. A recent release of public records may reveal who really runs Clallam County.

On April 8th, 2022, a month before the Tribe’s deliberate breach of the original dike that kept the Dungeness River from flooding for 60 years, county employee and habitat biologist Cathy Lear (who has managed the Levee Setback project for a decade) emailed her boss, department of community development Director Mary Ellen Winborn. Under a section of the email titled “Phase 2 schedule coordination with Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe and Corps,” Lear wrote that the county engineer, Joe Donisi, met with three Jamestown Tribe employees. The email acknowledges that “sequencing of construction” is essential because the original dike is important “related to flood hazard.”

Joe D. and I met today with Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe (Hansi, Randy, LaTrisha), Corps levee safety and permitting staff, and Dave Cline, Brian Reznik (Phase 2 lead for Shannon & Wilson), Jessica Randolph, and Tyler Stephens. We needed to iron out the sequencing of construction and levee removal as they both related to flood hazard.

Surprisingly, although residents have been told “Towne Road was never supposed to close for even one day,” Lear tells Winborn that “Old Towne Road will be closed July 2022, New Towne Road will open October 2023.”

In an email to CC Watchdog from Jamestown Tribe employee Hansi Hals, it appears the ahead-of-schedule and deliberate breach of the original dike occurred on May 4th, 2022:

The start date for Jamestown’s removal of the River’s Edge dike levee was scheduled for 5/2/22, and our work was initiated on 5/4/22.

The breach of the original dike, before the County completed the new Towne Road Levee, wasn’t initially problematic two years ago. However, the concern was that downstream communities would be flooded when the fall and winter rains of 2022/2023 increased river levels.

The County’s contractor, Scarsella Bros., was already constructing the Towne Road Levee from Anderson Road southward, but once the Tribe removed the old dike, the construction pace needed to increase. Faced with an approaching flood season, the County sent the accelerated construction of the new levee out to bid. Only one bid was received (not by Scarsella Bros., but by Delhur). On June 14th, 2022, Leer wrote to Winborn and said:

While we have enough $ for the Engineer’s estimate, we do not have
enough for the bid that Del Hur submitted. As I understand it, next steps are for
the County to reject the bid and reissue an invitation to bid. Does this square with
your and Joel’s experience? Several of us meet on site at 8 Pacific time to talk over flood contingency, the bid, etc.

Lear’s mention of “Pacific time” may reveal that Clallam County DCD Director Winborn was working remotely and overseeing the project from her home in Mississippi.

The following day, Lear provided another update to Winborn. The County’s attempts to accelerate levee construction and protect residents from flooding were falling short. Due to the tight timeline, contractors didn’t want to bid on the project. The one willing contractor reflected the risk associated with a condensed schedule by submitting a bid that greatly exceeded the County’s estimate.

We’ve (Joe D, Pat McElroy, Shannon &Wilson team) tried working through a
way to accept the bid, but ultimately could not reconcile the cost differences.
Joe and Pat have talked to their contacts and learned that the aggressive
schedule and the risks associated with not meeting that schedule were the
reasons that they did not bid, or (in Del Hur’s case) bid very high.

The aggressive schedule was created to get Phase 2 in place before flood
season, as the Tribe has removed a portion of the Corps levee and that has
implications both for the County project and for downstream flooding. We can
build an emergency (ie, 2022 winter flood season) structure for far less $ and
reissue the invitation to bid with a more reasonable schedule. The contractor
could work in the winter if they so desired, and pull the Corps levee in the
spring.

We (Joe D, Pat McE, S&W) met with Hansi and her engineer to look at the site
yesterday and talk over contingency options. We are not of one mind, yet, but
at least we were all standing out there looking at the reality.

Later that month, on June 24th, Lear followed up with Winborn on an idea mentioned in the above email — a temporary dike that would protect residents for one flood season while the Towne Road Levee was completed.

The thread below pertains to an issue I have mentioned, where Jamestown
S’Klallam Tribe removed a portion of the Corps levee earlier this year, creating
the need to develop and implement flood protection measures by October 1.
The Commissioners are aware of the situation.

At this time, our (DCD and Roads) recommendation is the ‘yellow line’, a
temporary levee that could be built with materials on site. The yellow line
connects the existing Corps levee with the Tribe’s levee and leaves landward
(so, unavailable as riverward floodplain) only about 6 acres of the Tribe’s
property. We anticipate that the yellow line would be removed next
construction season as Phase 2 went into full swing.

The yellow line is the least impactful on the land, the least expensive, and most easily implemented option that we know of right now. The Tribe at this point does not agree that the yellow line is the way forward.

During this week’s work session we recommended that the bid for Dungeness
Phase 2 be rejected and the invitation to bid be re-issued after some
modification. Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe has asked for the rejection to be held
over for a week, to look at additional options. Their ideas are outlined below.
Pat McElroy and I will work with the Tribe this week to learn more about their
ideas (Joe D is on vacation).

I have asked that the bid rejection be held over until July 5. I would like to be quite clear that the floodplain restoration grant funds are not to be used to solve this problem. Phase 2 is the restoration phase of the project, with only 2 flood protection elements included to complete the work started in Phase 1. The 2 flood protection elements are a connection between the Tribe’s levee at the south end and a connection to the existing levee near
the Schoolhouse.

Meanwhile, Phase 1 is rocking! The crew has almost made it all the way to the
southern end of the project, where the levee meets up with Towne Road.

The idea of a temporary dike, or “yellow line,” appealed to the county because permitting was easy, and it prevented community flooding. It was proposed to stretch from the Tribe’s River’s Edge Dike to a portion of the original 1960s dike.

One solution offered by the County was to construct a temporary dike just west of the Creamery.

Although a temporary dike would save taxpayer money and keep Towne Road open, the Tribe had to weigh in. A week and a half after proposing a temporary dike, the County was getting restless while waiting for a clear path forward. On July 5th, the Tribe was to appear before the Board of Commissioners to give its recommendations.

Winborn wrote to Lear and asked, “Has the tribe spoken, yet?”

Lear replied, “Not t [sic] yet.”

Lear was able to provide an update to Winborn later that day:

It turned out to be a long session. BOCC ultimately rejected the bid but obviously
a hard decision, bound up with the need to provide flood protection this year.
Afterwards, Joe, Randy, and I talked for hours about possible ways forward.
Hansi, LaTrisha, and Cheryl joined in at different times. We finished up around 4.
No real answers yet about how to move the project forward, how to address need
for emergency levee, and whether those two are intertwined. The good news is we
are all still talking.

The Tribe’s natural resources director, Hansi Hals, summarized the recommendations in an email later that day to Lear, Donisi, and other county and tribal staff.

“Cathy,
I was not able to debrief fully with you and Joe after the BOCC meeting because of a 1pm commitment. At this point, Jamestown still strongly urges that the County move as quickly as possible to Phase 2 construction. Here is a possible path and timeframe:

1. Clallam Co declare an emergency
2. County prepare an addenda to the existing Phase 2 bid package
a. Take out the oxbow channel and associated work
(excavation, hardening, roughened channel)
b. Take out Towne Rd. relocation
c. Offer a staging area (JST willing to provide staging area for benefit of contractor — Co staff has map identifying this space)
3. Per emergency procedure – provide to contractor (either DelHur and/or Scarcella) and ask for bid. Communication made to contractor by Friday July 8th. Bid return date due July 15. Contract executed and contractor starting no later than August 1.

As you already know, Jamestown identified concerns with the temporary dike option that would cross tribal property: Legal encumbrance that does not allow the facility
(attached for your reference); requires Fair Market Value reimbursement to State if not upheld. This represents a major expense not reflected in Co budget estimate

Concern about temporary one-yr structure continuing for multiple yrs while County works to find additional funding. The Tribe has been advocating for the realignment of the dike for more than 20 yrs because their treaty rights have been impacted. Rebuilding a harmful structure on the Tribe’s property reveals a deep equity/ justice issue to me personally.

Does not meet the County’s wetland mitigation requirements (must construct Phase 2 and gain ecosystem benefits to fulfill wetland permit conditions)

Only provides the existing (known vulnerability) flood protection by tying into the existing levee.

Does not meet the multiple salmon recovery funding objectives/obligations

As you already know, Jamestown recommended Towne Rd as the contingency alignment. Jamestown intends to deliver a stamped design for the Towne Rd contingency plan directly to the County. We understand this alignment is not ‘simple’, but the Tribal property alignment also has the specter of fish stranding issues, and is complicated by property control and a legal encumbrance. I fully believe the most cost-efficient and best strategy is to avoid the contingency and build Phase 2 (streamlined, affordable version per Jamestown’s earlier communications and tabulated spreadsheet). If you move THIS WEEK on the addenda and keep timeframes tight – you can do this!

The Tribe adamantly opposed the only option that would save taxpayer money and keep Towne Road open. Although a temporary levee would protect residents from a flood, Hals said it would infringe on the Tribe’s treaty rights. She also felt the structure was harmful and revealed deep equity and justice issues.

The following day, July 6th, Director Winborn wrote Lear: “From this point forward, I need to be involved when making decisions.”

Lear replied to the DCD director over 2,000 miles away in Mississippi: “What is the best way for that to occur? Ie, phone, text, email, zoom?”

“Text and then we can talk on the phone or zoom,” instructed Winborn.

On July 11th, Lear wrote to Director Winborn, Engineer Donisi, and the three commissioners. Her perspective came from someone who had overseen the project for a decade and had worked closely with the Tribe:

I want to share my thoughts on the situation regarding the levee and floodplain
restoration on the lower Dungeness River.

I feel that, until the entire floodplain restoration project is complete, the community and the project itself should be protected by the Corps levee. The project was designed with the notion that it would be built with the Corps levee in place, and the Corps levee removed once all flood protection and habitat features were completed. Absent the Corps levee’s protection or similar protection, the floodplain restoration project is at risk.

Brief History:
In 2020 Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe was able to quickly purchase property south (upstream) of the County’s planned project and build a setback levee in that location. The goal is to connect that levee with the portion that the County is building, affording better flood protection to the community and returning to the river an additional 65 acres of floodplain. Ultimately, when the entire project is complete – both the County and the Tribe’s sections – and the Corps levee removed, ~170 acres of floodplain will be riverward of the levees.

The Tribe’s schedule has been more aggressive than the County’s. Permitting and construction of that levee were straightforward. Due to the County’s land ownership mosaic, permitting requirements, complex site, and a record-setting LaNiña winter, the County’s Phase 1 construction is behind schedule (but catching up quickly). The County planned to go to bid for Phase 2 once Phase 1 was complete to avoid construction conflicts and to allow the Phase 1 levee to settle. The Tribe asked that the County go to bid sooner. That request was accommodated. As we know, the single bid received was well above available funding, and was rejected.

Thoughts:
In my mind the County has done everything possible to sync up with the Tribe’s timeline. After delays due to weather and water, Phase 1 levee construction is making great progress. Phase 2 went out to bid early, with a compressed timeline, in the hopes of starting construction this summer. Great effort was put toward making it possible to accept the bid and move forward with construction this summer season.

In my view, the Tribe’s actions in removing any portion of the Corps levee were/are premature, costly, and do not reflect conditions on the ground. Removing portions of the Corps levee imperils both the downstream community and the floodplain restoration project itself. Were the river to flow into the rest of the floodplain, with no exit route, it has the potential to strand the Corps levee, disrupt the surface of Towne Road, flow into the west tributary and then into Meadowbrook Creek, and/or overtop
the Corps levee and return to the river. Stranding the levee creates a morass of habitat, flood hazard, permitting, and construction cost impacts. River water
flowing into the west tributary and Meadowbrook Creek will likely produce downstream flood impacts along with flooding on Towne Road near the
Schoolhouse. River water overtopping the levee and re-entering the river could
affect Schoolhouse Bridge.

Preliminary modeling indicates that, should the Tribe complete its removal of the Corps levee, the floodplain will begin to inundate at 1300 cubic feet per second. These numbers certainly are not final, but offer food for thought.

The Tribe’s untimely action is also expensive. The County’s consultants’ time alone to date will cost the County ~$30,000 for meetings, modeling, analysis, and design options generated solely to address the Tribe’s premature removal of the Corps levee. Total cost for consultants may be ~ $50,000 when all is said and done.

We continue to talk with Tribal staff, but as the below email indicates the Tribe intends to continue its removal of the levee with no plan to address issues that
the removal creates. Such an approach puts at risk years of effort to bring this
project to fruition.

Lear acknowledged that the Tribe’s premature dike removal had created a financial burden for the County. Yet, despite every attempt by the County to accommodate the Tribe’s demands, the Tribe was pushing forward with disregard for community safety, fiscal impacts on the county, and effects on habitat restoration.

Three hours later, the Tribe’s habitat program manager, Randy Johnson (not to be confused with the county commissioner by the same name), sent an email to county commissioners and staff, tribal leadership, the Army Corps of Engineers, and even the Peninsula Daily News:

“There is a 500-foot gap in the lower Dungeness River levee system. This is due to
the three projects that will relocate the levee system, not being completely
synchronized currently.

At the July 5th BOCC meeting, the Tribe offered to provide, this week, an engineered plan (plan, profile, cross sections, and quantities) of a Towne Road cross dike contingency plan. This potential temporary dike location is also known as the “blue line”. It would plug the 500-foot gap. I’ve attached a draft plan and will list quantities below. The final plan will include quantities for removing the 1,700 feet of Corps dike integral to this alternative, along with additional details. I expect to send you the final version Wednesday night or Thursday.

Please note that by providing this plan, the Tribe does not endorse constructing a
temporary dike. The plan should be viewed in the same light as a fire insurance
policy. A person hopes they’ll never have to use it. Both temporary cross dike locations (yellow line and blue line) that have been proposed to fill the 500-foot gap in the federal levee would connect the Rivers Edge levee (10,000-year protection) with the Corps dike (25-year protection or less).

With construction of the County’s Phase 1 levee, there are now parallel levees
along the lower Dungeness River. Together these will serve as a dam, with about
72 acres of land between them, for any water that 1) flows through the gap in the
levee system or 2) overflows or breaches the frail Corps dike. This inadvertent
dam could impound over 4 million cubic feet of water. Then, when the dam is overtopped and fails, approximately 10,000 to 25,000 cfs would likely be
released. Added to the flood, this would produce flows far exceeding a 500-year
flood. The level of devastation in downstream areas would likely warrant national
news coverage. Loss of human life would be a very real possibility.

This specter can be avoided by simply constructing the Phase 2 project – completing the County’s setback levee (950-feet) and connecting the floodplain by removing the Corps dike - beginning no later than August 1. I urge the Clallam County Board of Commissioners to issue an emergency declaration to suspend normal contracting requirements, enter negotiations with the sole Phase 2 bidder (DelHur Industries), and begin the crucial work of constructing Phase 2 without delay.

The Tribe’s email recategorized the early breach of the dike as the project not being “completely synchronized.” Johnson didn’t overtly say that the Tribe was against a temporary dike. However, he contacted the media and painted the County’s preferred option as a catastrophic and reckless path forward that could lead to mass casualties.

To reinforce the impending devastation if the County did not do as the Tribe instructed, Randy Johnson (Tribe employee, not County Commissioner) sent a follow-up email two days later, on July 13th. His email detailed the havoc that would ravage the Dungeness community if the County didn’t obey the Tribe’s recommendation — The 3 Crabs neighborhood would be swept into the bay, news helicopters would fly over the ruined landscape searching for bodies, and the County would be liable for the deaths:

If water gets between the Corps Dike and the Phase 1 levee, (either because there is no temporary cross dike, or the cross dike or the Corps dike fail), a 50-acre lake will form. The lake will become an average of 2’ deep (8’ deep near the SDW/Anderson Rd intersection) and will then begin overflowing at roughly the intersection of SDW and Anderson Road.

The water will drop about 10 vertical feet in a distance of about 100’ into Meadowbrook Creek. The erosive action of this flow could quickly head cut through the road, causing a blowout. Then the 50-acre lake suddenly drains.
If it drains in 4 minutes, the flow raging through Dungeness and hitting 3 Crabs Road would be approximately 18,000 cfs. A Dungeness River 1,000-year flood is 13,528 cfs.

News helicopters would circle the devastation and speculate on the number of dead. The County, Tribe, and the Corps would be embroiled in wrongful death suits for years or decades. This grim specter can be avoided so easily by simply constructing Phase 2A now. Since we know this, I think it’s our responsibility to get the information out to the public.

The County abandoned the temporary dike to pursue the more expensive option, keeping Towne Road closed. According to county engineer Joe Donisi at the July 5th work session, this would require an additional $3 million in funding from the County — a sizable chunk for a project budgeted to be $20 million total.

There are lessons to be learned from “project partners” Clallam County and Jamestown Tribe working together.

1. If the Tribe creates a problem, the County must fix it.

2. The money used to fix the problem created by the Tribe will come from County taxpayers.

3. The Tribe is accountable to no one and refuses to communicate, compromise, or pause a project that endangers the community, siphons money from the County, or threatens habitat restoration.

4. The Tribe can seize control of a county project, and the County will allow it.

5. If the County hesitates to meet the Tribe’s demands, the Tribe will use the media to spread fear about the County’s judgment and decision-making.

6. Prioritizing public safety and fiscal responsibility ahead of the Tribe’s demands could be skewed as a violation of treaty rights or reveal that the County harbors justice and equity issues.

Weeks later, on August 1st, 2022, the County drafted a resolution that blamed the Tribe for breaching the dike. This had to be done to declare an emergency, which allowed the County to choose a contractor to accelerate the construction of the new levee without sending the project out to bid. The Tribe disapproved of the resolution’s wording and offered the County $500,000 if they could agree on new language. The following day, the document was rewritten to blame the Army Corps of Engineers and the Tribe was absolved of any blame.

7. For a half million dollars, the County will modify documents until the Tribe approves the wording.

If the Army Corps of Engineers caused the dike’s breach, it wasn't mentioned in the flurry of emails received from this public records request, but when that resolution was rewritten, the Army Corps was saddled with the blame.

It seems there is one thing Clallam County and the Jamestown Tribe work well on — choosing a scapegoat.