Residents don’t buy reasons for flood

BONNERS FERRY, Idaho – In 1968, Jean Plato and her husband bought farmland along the banks of the Kootenai River. Although the river was notorious for its springtime floods, the soil was rich and a massive new dam was being built upstream in Montana.

“We thought we’d never be threatened,” Plato said.

Less than a year after moving to the land, Plato’s husband drowned while trying to move cattle to high ground during a flood. It was an accident and an act of nature, Plato said.

After Libby Dam was built in 1972, the floods were no longer such a threat. But in June, the river flooded again. Crops were ruined and tons of soil washed downstream. This time, Plato doesn’t blame nature. She thinks the flooding was caused by government mismanagement.

“That dam was a contract with the people for safety,” she said Wednesday at a public meeting aimed at sorting out the causes of the June flood. Plato expressed anger at the officials who attended the meeting. “You are holding our entire future in your hands.”

Top managers with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hoped to explain the circumstances that led up to the flood. Record heat in mid-May sent a surge of snowmelt into the reservoir behind Libby Dam, they said. There was also a pulse of heavy rains in June. All this water poured into a reservoir already holding more than its usual amount as part of a plan to help save imperiled salmon and sturgeon downstream.

“If there’s a better way of doing things, we’re going to do it,” said Lt. Col. John Leighow, deputy commander of the Corps of Engineers’ Seattle District.

Many of those attending the session weren’t satisfied with the given reasons, however. They say the federal government simply goofed and should have planned better. They also accused the government of putting the needs of fish in front of humans. In May, the federal government implemented a new flow management program for the dam designed to send more water downstream during critical spawning and migration periods for sturgeon and salmon.

But the variable flow program was not implemented as it was designed and federal dam managers should have made more room in the reservoir in April, said Brian Marotz, a fisheries manager with Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Fish should not be blamed for the floods, he said.

The flooding could have been prevented, Marotz insisted. By March, there were indications the reservoir could fill too soon.

“I’m just wondering why people weren’t nervous,” Marotz asked. “We were in a world of hurt before the event ever happened.”

The reservoir was releasing minimal amounts of water in April because other rivers in the Northwest, including the Snake River, were already surging with snowmelt, explained Cindy Henriksen, a manager with the Corps of Engineers reservoir control center in Portland. The corps based its decisions on complicated weather and runoff forecasts, she said. These forecasts proved to be wrong.

The record heat in May and high rains in June resulted in a surge of inflow to the reservoir double what’s been seen in the past four decades of record keeping, Henriksen said. By June 18, the reservoir was full, and the river downstream was 2 feet above flood stage.

Although no homes were destroyed by the flood, an estimated $10 million in crops were damaged. At least 40 miles of flood-control levees were also believed to be damaged. Local officials say detailed reports on the losses are still being compiled.

Leighow, with the corps, said the federal government is still working to determine if the flood could have been prevented. He said another public meeting will likely be held in Bonners Ferry in November. The purpose of Wednesday’s session was to listen to questions as well as explain some of the difficulties in trying to operate the dam for competing interests, he said. “It’s a delicate balancing act meeting the needs of our economy and also meeting the needs of the environment.”

Susan Martin, supervisor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Spokane office, said the variable flow program was designed to help fish without reducing the dam’s ability to generate power or prevent floods. Fish spawning habitat improvement projects are also under way, but they won’t be ready until 2010. Springtime surges of water from Libby Dam were meant to help prevent sturgeon eggs below the dam from being smothered by sand.

“If it’s implemented properly, we shouldn’t have these conflicts between humans and fish,” Martin said.

None of the explanations sat well with Bill Michalk, whose family farms the banks of the Kootenai River. He accused the federal officials of conducting a “very slick and highly orchestrated” public meeting Wednesday that avoided placing any blame or getting at true causes of the flood, which he believes could have been prevented.

“You all endangered my life; you endangered my family’s life,” Michalk said. “To me, that’s attempted murder through negligence. … I don’t trust you anymore.”

Bill Bishop, Idaho’s director of homeland security, was also critical of how the federal government managed flows from Libby Dam. He suggested federal, state and local officials conduct a flood simulation exercise in coming months to develop a better plan at preventing future floods.

“This is not a model of how government works well to protect the human environment or the natural environment or the public’s safety,” Bishop said.