Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 2020)
The Columbia Press October 30, 2020 Senior 7 Mayor’s Message Moments by Henry Balensifer III with Emma Edwards Reading for ‘Obsolete Children’ The complicated case of Eighth Street Dam I enjoyed reading books by Dr. Seuss to my kids when they were young. I like that, in his later years, he called us seniors “obsolete children,” reminding me of one of my favorite Dr. Seuss quotes: “Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.” One could even claim “it’s not my fault.” The Bible tells me that God knew all about me, even before I was formed and before I was born (Psalms 139:16). Dr. Seuss was 82 when he wrote the book “You’re Only Old Once,” which includes the subtitle, “A Book for Ob- solete Children.” He wrote the first draft while on a vis- it to the Golden Years Clinic, where he says visitors endure “long waits and bizarre med- ical tests.” Oh yes, been there, done that! He also talks about the end of one’s visit “When at last we are sure you’ve been properly pilled, then a few paper forms must be properly filled, so that you and your heirs may be properly billed.” He closes the book with one of his quotes many of us have used in the first person more than once (not know- ing it came from Dr. Seuss). “You’re in pretty good shape, for the shape you’re in.” By the way, some of us older people still enjoy having a cur- rent telephone book. To order a 2020 telephone book, which will be current until August 2021, call 1-877-243-8339. They assure me it will be delivered via mail within the next few weeks. And no charge! I better remind all of us that on this Sunday, Nov. 1, Day- light Saving Time Ends at 2 a.m. So it may be a good idea to set all of our clocks back one hour before we go to bed. Yes, just like we did on Sun- day, March 8, when we had to do the deed of springing for- ward at 2 a.m. but most set their clocks forward one hour the evening before. A good way to remember is that, in the spring, we spring forward and in the fall we fall backward. Maxine, one of my favor- ite cartoon characters, says “Don’t forget to turn your clock back. I’m going to turn mine back to when I was 20” Recently, my friend, Bar- bara, sent me this delightful little ditty: “I woke up, I lifted my arms, I moved my knees, I turned my neck. Every- thing made the same noise – Crryyyydddddccccceek -- I came to a conclusion that I am not old, I am crispy.” I think dear Dr. Seuss would have liked that one. And, by the way, you can buy that book of his for your child about us seniors being obso- lete children. But wait until their 70th birthday to give it to them. The Eight Street Dam has been a source of controversy since it was first proposed over half a century ago. I won’t rehash the volumes of this controversy, but I will summarize how we got here, and summarize the report, presentation and answers the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (I’ll refer to them as USACE) provided at this week’s com- mission meeting. The structure was a dam with tide gates built mid-last cen- tury. Its purpose was to pro- vide water management for agriculture upstream as well as flood control on the lower reaches. About two decades ago, holes were cut in the tide gates to provide a chance for fish passage and, more recent- ly, the tide gates were removed completely. The controversy was frothy at this point, but didn’t boil over until a proposal to remove the entire structure and replace it with a bridge came before the commission around 2016. The controversy started with the width of the bridge, and ended with flood-control concerns. In order to address the latter, the city requested assistance from the USACE to determine what would be the effects of re- moving the tide gates and what Special columns in The Columbia Press Every week: Senior Moments with Emma Edwards Week 1: History in the Making Week 2: Financial Focus with Adam Miller Week 3: Off the Shelf by Kelly Knudsen Final week: Mayor’s Message by Henry Balensifer flood-control benefits would there be from having tide gates back on vs. keeping the non- functioning structure, vs. full removal of the structure. This is what a study presented last night was tasked to address. First off, the USACE vali- dated that there was no issue with the previous Tetra-Tech hydrologic model but noted they took their own model fur- ther to include modeling the tide gates back on. The city has been told by the state that if it were to place tide gates back on the structure, it would have to come up to fish-friendly standards — which is no small feat nor cost. The USACE did not model the water levels accounting for a fish-friendly tide gate, which would allow more wa- ter flow upstream before the gates closed. This means the study answers a question of what could have been, had the existing tide gates remained on before they were removed years ago. The second point was that during everyday tides and big tides without rain events, the tide gates do their job and keep upstream water levels low — although there’s really low flooding risk during those events regardless of the tide gate presence. Where the difference be- tween having tide gates on and no structure or tide gates dwin- dles is during heavy weather events. It goes from inches of protection to less than half inch in some cases. ODFW has noted that with the rather large amounts of de- velopment upstream, storm- water surge from big rain events is likely to aggravate what is already a problematic situation and potentially re- duce what little protection is shown in the study during the events when flooding could be most impactful. It was noted things we could do to refine the model is do a hydrologic model of rain run- off from upstream develop- ment and install a tide gauge in the Skipanon River. The city is likely to become the new and reluctant owner of the structure in a year or two, at which point it will have to decide what to do with the Eighth Street structure, if any- thing. I do not have any concrete quick fixes, but I do think in- stalling a tide gauge and re- vamping our stormwater mas- ter plan to account for runoff into our major drainages is a good first step. Waterfront properties on Alder Creek and Skipanon River, as well as neighborhoods in Hammond served by the Enterprise tide gate, have seen an increase in winter water levels and flood- ing over the past 10 years. Development and weather conditions have essentially rendered tide gates as inad- equate in some sections of our city during major storm events. While Eighth Street gets the most press, I view the issue of stormwater and flood control as a citywide issue, to which Hammond has some of the most pressing needs and to which we’ve invested in some improvements this year. There will be more to come on this in the future.
