Wallowa County Chieftain
News
wallowa.com
August 8, 2018
A7
Dam breach in Washington to cost owner $2.5M
By Don Jenkins
For the Chieftain
A Florida company has
agreed to pay $115,000 in fines
and fund a 10-year, $2.5 mil-
lion project to repair damage
to a creek caused when its dam
breached last year on a south-
east Washington ranch once
owned by Ernest Hemingway’s
oldest son.
The resulting flood closed
the main artery between Enter-
prise and Lewiston, Idaho, for
a time.
A section of the earthen
dam on the property in Asotin
County gave away April 13,
2017, releasing an estimated 9
million gallons of water, sedi-
ment and debris down Rattle-
snake Creek.
A huge pile of uprooted
trees collected at the bottom
of the grade and a jagged edge
was ripped into the asphalt.
Portions of the damage are
visible to motorists today.
The primary bridge near
Boggan’s Oasis was still stand-
ing, but another nearby span
didn’t fare as well. A metal
bridge across Rattlesnake
Creek was destroyed, taking out
access to Kevin Botts’ ranch.
The cost to repair the span was
estimated at $100,000.
Courtesy Photo
Courtesy Photo
A Florida company will pay a fine and repair damage caused by the breach
of its dam north of Enterprise just off Hwy. 3.
Rattlesnake Creek is an
important tributary to the
Grand Ronde River and both
provide habitat for fish pro-
tected by the Endangered Spe-
cies Act. Summer steelhead use
the creek for spawning, rearing
and migration.
Washington State Depart-
ment of Ecology announced
the agreement with the current
owner of Bonasa Breaks Ranch
last week.
The breach severely dam-
aged fish habitat, Ecolo-
gy’s water quality program
manager, Heather Bartlett,
said in a statement. “The
dam break caused erosion,
loss of thousands of mature
trees that provided shade to
cool water temperature, and
sent boulders downstream
and blocked migrating fish.
Restoring Rattlesnake Creek
is essential.”
Debris remains beside Hwy. 129 just across the
Oregon border into Washington, the site of a
flood caused by a dam break.
The dam was built in the
‘60s or earlier and had been
enlarged without state permits
in 2006-07, according to a post-
breach investigation by Ecolo-
gy’s Dam Safety Office. Engi-
neers reported that the breach
was most likely caused by an
inadequate spillway that led to
water over-topping the dam.
Construction flaws would
have prevented the state from
issuing permits to enlarge
the dam, according to the
investigation.
The 18-foot-tall, 414-foot-
wide dam held back a 4.3-acre
pond used for fish rearing and
recreation, according to Ecol-
ogy. The breach flooded a six-
mile stretch of the creek lead-
ing to the Grande Ronde River.
The ranch was acquired in
2004 from Jack Hemingway’s
widow by a limited liability
company registered in Ponte
Vedra Beach, Fla., according to
public records. Efforts to reach
the company’s agent, Ste-
phen Croskrey, who signed the
agreement with Ecology, were
unsuccessful.
Jack Hemingway was born
to the famous writer in 1923
and died in 2000. He bought
the property as a hunting and
fishing retreat in 1990, accord-
ing to a 2001 story by Forbes
magazine.
The property’s owner will
pay a $15,000 fine for failing
to obtain permits to enlarge
the dam and $100,000 for vio-
lating the state’s water qual-
ity law.
Over the next decade, the
ranch must meet deadlines to
plant trees and shrubs, remove
fish barriers and create habi-
tat. The ranch could face fines
of up to $500 a day for failing
to keep on schedule, according
to its agreement with Ecology.
The water and sediment
released by the breach dam-
aged a vacation trailer, flooded
a public road, and damaged a
bridge and highway, but no
one was injured, according to
Ecology records. The ranch
paid the state Department of
Fish and Wildlife $72,240 this
year to rebuild a bridge across
the creek.
Commissioner-elect Dunn moves ahead with campaign promise
Advisory
committee
proposal goes to
commissioners
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa County Commis-
sioner-Elect Bruce Dunn sub-
mitted his proposal to estab-
lish a Human and Social
Resource Advisory Commit-
tee for the county to his future
workmates.
The committee was part of
Dunn’s campaign platform and
a way to bring stakeholders to
Dunn
the table to work together to
solve Wallowa County issues
— and to limit the influence
of outside ideas and programs
designed for very different cul-
tures and landscapes.
“We help ourselves move
forward,” he said during his
campaign for County Com-
missioner. “We don’t look for
another government program
or money.”
Dunn has extensive expe-
rience with Wallowa-centric
committees, having served
as chairman of the Wallowa
County Natural Resource
Advisory Committee for two
decades.
That panel was created
to review implementation of
agricultural, forest and natural
resource provisions of Wal-
lowa County’s Comprehen-
sive Land Use Plan.
“I think NRAC has been a
success in the sense that it’s
connected resources users
from a lot of different lev-
els, from agencies to resource
users on the ground level,”
said Commission Chair Todd
Nash.
Dunn’s experience with
NRAC and advising county
commissioners informed his
belief, repeatedly expressed
throughout his campaign, that
the county “needs a plan and
we need a strategy.”
The mission of Dunn’s
committee would be to
address a broad range of
issues, coordinate efforts and
eliminate duplication of pro-
grams and maintain a tight
focus on what is best for Wal-
lowa County.
The 14-18 members of the
committee would be drawn
from the following areas of
expertise:
City government, law
enforcement, tourism, nutri-
tion, drug abuse, alcohol
abuse, library, family services,
mental health, physical health,
education, small business,
senior services, fair board, dis-
abled services, veteran affairs,
physical fitness, real estate,
economic development, land
use planning and marketing.
“I don’t know how often
these groups talk to one
another,” Dunn said. “The
more people you have, the
more ideas you get.”
Commissioners have indi-
cated approval of Dunn’s
proposal.
“We have experts in a
lot of different areas in Wal-
lowa County, and we as indi-
vidual commissioners can’t
be expected to be experts in
all the different fields,” Nash
said. “Bruce Dunn’s proposed
committee would bring that
(broad) work group together.”
The committee would meet
monthly or perhaps quarterly.
The board of commissioners
would appoint members of
the committee, but those inter-
ested in being on the commit-
tee are encouraged to contact
commissioners to express their
interest.
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