November 23, 2007

By SUE RYAN
News staff writer

Debris torrents off Mount Hood more than a year ago damaged multiple sites in Hood River County including two of its irrigation districts and one water district.

A year later most of the repairs are completed but all three districts face the same problem: They can’t get flood insurance against future events.

Most are building in-house reserve accounts to fund against future damages, which means some planned maintenance or improvements will have to be delayed.

MFID sits nearest the mountain, especially near the Eliot and Coe glaciers. When debris came sloughing off the glaciers, the damage caused the complete shutdown of three facilities and knocked two of their five powerhouses offline.

The debris flow sent boulders, rocks and trees down Eliot Canyon, causing more than $1 million in damages. So far repairs have totaled $928,462. But significant additional costs are expected for more repairs.

Initial repair work involved two weeks of clearing debris and replacing 500 to 600 feet of 36-inch pipe.

But a year later, more repairs remain to be finished. MFID manager Dave Compton said 1,000 feet of pipe remains in question.

“We know it is damaged but the question is what to do,” he said.

MFID recently received a survey of the damaged pipe. While the line was initially buried under three to four feet of dirt, the manufacturer’s stress rating allows it to take pressure from being underneath eight to 10 feet of fill.

The problem is that the debris flow buried the pipe under 24 feet of dirt and rock. Compton said it would be a very expensive fix but because the section carries 75 percent of the district’s water load that it must be dealt with.

“We have two options, one to excavate all 750 to 1,000 feet and figure out why the pipe has bellied down (sunk) and re-bed it at a new level,” he said. “Or to bypass it entirely and put another pipe across to connect at the ends of the old section.”

Compton said the district will make sure the line is secure by next irrigation season and will cost out repairs this winter. While the old insurance policy for the district will cover this repair, the district cannot get flood insurance against future events.

Compton said the carrier has dropped the district due to the history of catastrophic events off Mount Hood that create expensive damages repeatedly.

“I did find some flood insurance for the dam (Laurance Lake) but the cost is astronomical,” he said.

The district will meet with its membership on the potential insurance in late December or early January.

Water dumped boulders, debris and silt into a 600-foot section of canal along the Hood River, which sits about midway between the MFID and Ice Fountain further downriver.

The flood tore out an additional section of 75 feet of flume wall. The damage knocked out service to 3,200 of the 5,800 acres that FID services for 1,600 residential and agricultural users.

The system had to be repaired to fix the powerhouse to provide electricity as well as irrigation. Their work first involved building two roads, one to give Pacific Corp access to re-locate a downed power pole and a second to access the district’s head gates.

Because the powerhouse also generated revenue, the district was faced with the double hit of losing its ability to make money to pay for repairs as well as serve clients.

A year later, district spokesman Jerry Bryan said the outlook is much better.

“Insurance people said it was not covered, then found a way to cover it,” he said.

That ended up as $2,283,000 million in repairs at the end. Bryan said the turnaround happened with the help of Special Districts Association of Oregon as well as FID’s acting manager Mike Kleinsmith.

“We recovered all our expenses because FEMA paid for all mitigation and not just repair work,” Bryan said. “That means that FEMA paid us to build it extra stout.”

The design included making walls four times as thick as before with a lot of steel inside. The project has been capped with steel plates and a remote control gate added to shut off the canal in case of a repeat event.

“What we have done is build it in a way that will withstand future events up to the magnitude of at least the November 2006 event,” Bryan said.

n Ice Fountain Water District

Floodwaters carrying debris continued scoured a new path as it shot its way downstream. For the Ice Fountain Water District, Director Mark Beam saw the river not just jump its banks but permanently change course.

The morning of the flood, the debris slammed into the district’s square block surrounding its spring. Before then, the river was 50 feet away from the spring block and behind a wall of riprap.

“It took the material down to the footing,” Beam said.

Before that the riprap covered most of the 16 foot high structure. The problem quickly became one of potential contamination as the river waters were threatening the footing for the spring.

Beam shut off the transmission line, ran water only from reservoirs and put 200 households near York Hill Road on notice to take precautionary measures.

After purchasing water from the city for a few days to serve lower elevation areas for some of its 2,000 customers, the district then commenced repairs. That included having Hanel Development putting in emergency riprap barrier followed by flushing transmission lines and chlorinating temporarily.

The district paid about $118,000 for those temporary measures but the permanent fix has yet to be completed.

“We want to do permanent repairs but in order to do it we have to be in water between July 15 and Aug. 30,” Beam said.

The procedure requires going through a fisheries review and permit process through the state. Beam said the district still needs to regrout around the spring box’s footing because of water leakage.

“The hydraulic grade of the river changed so much we are losing water out of the spring,” he said.

In addition, Beam would like the district to be able to cable down the riprap they put in place to keep it from washing away during another event. He estimated those permanent repairs at $400,000 although 75 percent will be paid for from already approved FEMA funds.

The district has to pay the remaining 25 percent out of pocket.

“We did not have flood insurance and we sure can’t get it now,” Beam said.