WAITSBURG - The way Stanley Heller describes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' proposed new flood control project for Coppei Creek certainly sounds enticing: protection against a 100-year flood, a possible reduction in home owner's insurance rates and requirements, and possible implementation before the area sees too many more cold wet winters with high snow packs and lots of rain.

"It's hard to know when that big (flood) event is going to happen," said Heller, the Corps' project manager based in Walla Walla. "This is a good year to consider it."

The downside of considering the project this ye...