The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON – The Columbia County Board of Commissioners on Monday heard a presentation from the former Public Works Director of Kittitas County about that county’s success in forming a flood control district.

Kirk Holmes, who is now an engineer in the private sector, described his county’s history of flooding in the last couple of decades, and the process they went through to get voter approval to form a flood control district. That approval resulted in a property tax levy of seven cents per thousand dollar valuation and generates approximately $480,000 per year for the district.

The commissioners invited Holmes to discuss his experience creating an FCD because county and City of Dayton officials are looking hard at how best to implement flood mitigation measures in the city and county.

These measures could include such things as maintenance and improvement of river dikes, improvements to bridge approaches to reduce damage when floods occur, and improvements to stream banks to reduce soil runoff during flood events.

Dayton Mayor Craig George, who also spoke with the commissioners, said that Washington law allows cities and counties to establish flood control districts without going out to voters. But he and the commissioners all indicated they would not consider creating an FCD without voter approval.

The City of Dayton faces an additional issue in that it has limited ability to increase tax levy rates, even with voter approval. State law puts a cap on total property tax levies that can be placed on citizens, and taxing entities within a city or county are ranked by priority.

Even if a flood control district were formed, it would have a fairly low ranking – below such entities as schools, fire district, hospital, Port, and even the library.

“We have about 10 or 11 cents (per thousand) total left now,” George said, regarding the City of Dayton’s taxing authority. He said it wasn’t feasible for the city to create its own flood control district at this time with the limited taxing authority available, especially since its levy could later be bumped by one of the higher ranking entities.

Commissioner Dwight Robanske said that the county has approximately 50 cents per thousand of unused taxing authority. The county has the option of creating an FCD separate from the city.

One County’s Experience

Kittitas County includes the cities of Ellensburg, Cle Ellum, Roslyn and Kittitas. It has a total population of about 40,000, or about 10 times Columbia County’s.

Holmes said that Kittitas County experiences flood damage of approximately $800,000 per year on average. The county experienced severe flooding events in 1995, 1996, 2009 and 2011.

Prior to establishing the FCD, Holmes’ Public Works Department had no budget to deal with flood preparedness. “I couldn’t even send out a newsletter,” he said. “We didn’t have the funds.”

In November 2012, Kittitas County’s voters approved creation of the FCD and implementation of the tax levy. The district was created in 2013 and began collecting revenues that year.

Holmes said that having the FCD in place gives the county many advantages besides providing funding.

“People were doing (flood mitigation) work all over the county,” Holmes said. That included private land owners, as well as the county, the City of Ellensburg, which owns a watershed, the federal government and the state Department of Natural Resources.

“The Flood Control District gives the county standing,” he said. Holmes said that now, anyone doing flood control work, including local, state and federal agencies, must get a permit from the county first. This allows the FCD to ensure that all work meets county standards and doesn’t negatively impact adjacent properties.

Holmes also said that the new FCD was a great benefit to the county after recent wildfires. “The flood district gave us the authority to do soil control work after the fire,” he said.

Holmes said that DNR and the forest service are not able to do work after a fire that is strictly aimed at flood mitigation. But there are many places where re-seeding and other soil containment efforts after a fire can be very beneficial in helping avoid soil runoff during the next heavy rain.

After the meeting, Commissioner Robanske said that the board had no time frame for moving forward on establishing a flood control district. Without the city participating fully in funding for the district, it will be difficult make the FCD work.