Guest Opinion | Planning, implementation impact of Killebrew Lake project

||| FROM DAN THIEME for HARNEY VIEW PARK & ROAD ASSOC. |||

Killebrew Lake Road Culvert Project
Public Comments to San Juan County Council
For June 20, 2023, Special County Council Meeting
Submitted by the Harney View Park and Road Association

Contact: Dan Thieme, Board Member and Secretary, dthieme@littler.com, (c) 206.910.5913

1. We Do Not Oppose This State-Mandated Fish-Passage Project. Our Concerns Relate to Planning, Implementation, and Impact Mitigation.
2. We Wish to Help Identify the Problems, and the Realistic Near and Long-Term Solutions. It Is Not Our Intent to Throw Rocks at Anyone.
3. Our Request: Terminate the Existing Construction Contract, and Direct the Department of Public Works to Carefully Analyse All Reasonably Available Mitigation Options Before Proceeding Further.
4. The Problem.
   • Prior project planning did not give sufficient attention to the impacts on traffic and the community from a 2 to 3 month total closure of Killebrew Lake Road, during the high summer season.
   • This came to light only as a result of the community outcry following the May 31, 2023, announcement of a July 10, 2023, road closure. The community was surprised to learn that this large, expensive and impactful project was approved with no prior community outreach and little apparent focus having been directed to mitigating the impacts of the project on the community.
   • Now that the community has brought these issues to the Council’s attention, it is the Council’s responsibility to ensure all available mitigation steps are pursued aggressively, and implemented if reasonably possible.
   • There is not sufficient time between now and the planned road closure on July 10, 2023, to conduct the appropriate planning.
5. The County Should Be Prepared to Incur Additional Costs to Mitigate Project Impacts.
   • Delaying this project will involve certain costs to the County to terminate or reschedule the existing construction contract. That will be money well spent, because it will allow planning to avoid or mitigate the very significant safety, economic and inconvenience impacts that we discuss below.
   • Moreover, this is a problem of the County’s own making. The Killebrew Lake Road community should not be denied proper planning and mitigation of impacts merely because the County let the contract before engaging with the community or properly focusing on the community impacts of a 2 to 3 month road closure.
   • From a broader view, the Killebrew Lake Road community should not have to shoulder the externalities of a project that was forced on the County by the State in order to advance (however imperfectly) the general public policy goal of improving salmon habitat. These costs should be borne by the taxpayers generally.
   • It is no answer to say to the community, “You can’t complain, your road washed out.” The County repaired the washout three and a half years ago. The scope and complications of the current project are driven entirely by the State’s requirement for fish passage. The County should have proactively addressed the impacts of the State’s requirements when planning for this project.

6. There Is No Emergency, and No September 30, 2023 Completion Deadline.

(a) A Delay to Allow Proper Planning Will Not Put the Road at Risk.

(i) Killebrew Lake Road washed out when the pre-existing 24” culvert failed on February 1, 2020, during the unprecedented storms that winter. The County promptly and efficiently replaced the culvert, in-kind, with a new 24” culvert, and repaired the road. (WDFW 11/28/22 Hydraulic Project Approval, Project Description. Available at www.bidnet.com/closed-government-contracts/bayhead-creek-culvert-replacement-at-killebrew-lake-road?itemId=827824676 (attachment under heading of “Amendments”)) 

(ii) The 2020 road washout occurred because the prior 24” culvert became
clogged by debris held up by a 6” tree that had fallen across the culvert entrance, not because the culvert was undersized. We have heard no fact-based concern that the existing 24” culvert presents a significant risk of washing out again if left in place for a further period of time. The 24” culvert now in place has worked without incident since it was installed three and a half years ago, and to our knowledge the prior 24” culvert had worked without incident for decades.

(b) A Delay to Allow Proper Planning Will Not Violate Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Requirements, and Will Have No Impact on Salmonid Habitat.

(i) In 2020, as a condition of obtaining the WDFW permit for the like-kind
culvert replacement, the County agreed it would install a fish-passable culvert by September 30, 2022. Id. We acknowledge this was requested by the State, not by the County.

(ii) This fish-passable culvert project has been in planning for three and a half years. The original September 30, 2022, agreed timing passed a year ago. The WDFW Hydraulic Project Approval, issued on November 28, 2022, did not specify a new deadline, and does not expire until August 4, 2027. Id.

(iii) Delaying the project will have no impact on salmonid habitat. The County determined in its 2019 study of salmonid habitat that potential fish migration up Bayhead Creek is entirely blocked by a concrete dam 360 feet from the mouth of the creek, downstream of the subject culvert. (San Juan Islands Salmonid Limiting Factors & Recommended Actions, Eight Basin Report, Final 06/27/19, Figure 13 (at page 41) and Table 16 (at page 43). Available at www.sanjuanco.com/documentcenter/view/18882) We are unaware of any plans to remove that blocking concrete dam.

(iv) The County’s study also noted: “In 2008 and 2009, no cutthroat were
found at [the mouth of Bayhead Creek] despite numerous surveys (Barsh 2010).” Id., p. 43. It should also be noted that Bayhead Creek empties into the breakwater-enclosed Bay Head Marina, further reducing the chances of use by salmon.

(c) A Delay to Allow Proper Planning Will Not Jeopardize FEMA Funding. We
understand the FEMA funding for this project has already been extended multiple times. Public Works has told us that FEMA has been very cooperative in granting prior extensions. Given FEMA’s mission, Public Works believes FEMA should have no reason to deny a further extension that is designed to mitigate the impact of the project on the local community.

(d) There Is No September 30, 2023 Completion Deadline. Our understanding is
that the only federal or state regulatory timing mandate imposed on this project is the work timing limitation stated in the WDFW permit. That timing limitation is in paragraph 1 of the WDFW permit (linked above), and is flexible: “TIMING LIMITATION: Work may start immediately, provided the stream is dry or in a low-flow period (or flow is diverted around the project site).” The permit includes no September 30 deadline, in 2023 or any other year, and the permit does not expire until August 4, 2027. Further, we are told by the Public Works
Department that an Army Corps of Engineers permit was not required for this project, and to their knowledge the only federal timing limitation for this project is the need to obtain a further extension of the FEMA funding.

7. The Impacts of the Proposed Dolphin Bay Road Detour Are Huge.

(a) Two to three months (July 10, 2023 – September 30, 2023).

(b) Ninety-minute+ round-trip detour, affecting 200+ residents.

c) The impacts of this detour on the community, and on Dolphin Bay Road, were not studied by the County.

(d) Substantial additional costs to residents, e.g., gas, vehicle wear and tear, cost
increases for ongoing residential construction projects east of the road closure, cost impacts on businesses east of the road closure (e.g., Abrahamson construction contracting business).

e) Substantial loss of revenue to the business at the ferry landing (Orcas Hotel
Restaurant (est. $50,000) and the Orcas Village Store (estimate not yet provided)), by cutting them off from their customers east of the road closure.

(f) The Dolphin Bay Road is already burdened, before this detour is imposed, by a steady volume of heavy dump truck traffic to and from the Dolphin Bay Quarry, located at 508 Elsie Road. Island Excavation tells us that they ran 61 round trips to that quarry last month (May 2023), and they tell us that was a slow month. Those 61 round trips do not include the other excavation companies on the island who also haul from that quarry.

(g) Public Works estimates the detour will result in a minimum 10x increase in
Dolphin Bay Road traffic. The detour will also force an additional heavy volume of large truck traffic onto that road – deliveries, garbage trucks, dump trucks, bulk water delivery trucks, propane delivery trucks, heavy equipment for ongoing residential construction projects, and weekly grading and Dustac of the gravel portion of Dolphin Bay Road as currently contemplated by Public Works.

8. With the Increased Traffic Load From the Detour, the Nature and Condition of Dolphin Bay Road Will Present Very Serious Safety Risks to Those Who Use the Detour.

(a) The entire 4.8 mile length of Dolphin Bay Road is substandard and dangerous
(e.g., blind curves, single lane with high-bank shoulders in many places, frequent pedestrian use of a narrow, no-shoulder roadway).

(b) Dolphin Bay Road also includes two+ miles of gravel road. The impact on the
gravel section from the increased traffic from the detour is unknown (it has not been studied).

(c) Uzek Susol, the owner of Orcas Towing, posted the following on his company’s Facebook page (emphasis added): “Anyone that is North of Laporte Rd will need to go on Dolphin Bay Rd to get to the ferry landing. In my 30+ years in business Dolphin Bay Rd has historically produced more accidents per mile than any other road on Orcas Island. Altho [sic] it has been better since it was partially paved there is still quite a bit of narrow single lane, loose gravel rd which has many blind corners & can be dangerous if traveling too fast. Please
drive courteously & carefully during this road closure as there will be dump trucks & garbage trucks forced to travel these roads with you. Uzek @ Orcas Auto Tech, Inc. DBA Orcas Towing.”

9. With the Increased Traffic Load From the Detour, the Negative Impacts on Emergency Services Will Present Life or Death Risks to the Residents.

(a) Public Works acknowledged at the June 12, 2023, informational meeting that
their consideration of emergency services ended when they notified the emergency responders that the road would be closed.

(b) Areas of concern (life or death issues):

(i) Medical emergencies among the residents are common. The residents’
median age is 62 years of age. (Per the U.S. Census, data for the 98280 zip code. Available at data.census.gov/table?g=860XX00US98280&tid=ACSST5Y2021.S0101)

(ii) EMT and fire response from Eastsound will be substantially delayed due to the forced use of Dolphin Bay Road. Emergency response speeds will be severely limited by the narrow, curving, single-lane and partially-gravelled road, and expected traffic backups, vs. travelling on Orcas Road and Killebrew Lake Road.

(iii) 40+ minutes added for residents’ travel to the emergency air evacuation site west of the ferry landing.

(iv) 40+ minutes added for residents’ travel to ferry access to mainland medical services.

(v) There is a fire station on the east side of the closure, but it is not staffed,
and we understand all but one of the EMTs and firefighters live on the west side of the closure.

10. A Delay Will Allow Available Mitigations to Be Evaluated.

(a) One-lane option?

(b) Alternative culvert design to shorten construction timing and/or facilitate a one-lane option?

(c) Add a stream diversion to allow shifting some or all of the construction closure to outside of the no/low stream flow, high summer period?

(d) Amend the construction contract to shorten the time allowed and/or to provide incentives for early completion?

(e) Locate on-island housing for off-island construction personnel, to speed project competition?

(f) Make improvements to Dolphin Bay Road?

11. A Delay Will Provide Substantial Benefits Even If Nothing Else About the Project Changes.

(a) A delay would allow time to engage with emergency responders to mitigate the impact of the closure on response times and residents’ travel times to emergency resources.

(b) A delay would allow residents to plan for the closure:

(i) Avoid scheduling summer visitors/on-island celebrations.
(ii) Choose to stay off island.
(iii) Reschedule ongoing construction projects.

(c) A delay would open the possibility of shifting the culvert work slightly earlier in the summer (even if no stream diversion is added), to reduce the impact on residents during the September high season, and reduce the length of the impact on school children commutes during the school year.