September 22, 2011
Dear Sirs/Madams:
Diamond Lake Improvement Association (DLIA) and the residents here at Diamond Lake are very concerned with the high water that we experienced in the spring this year and the potential for extreme high water again in the spring 2012. We are requesting your assistance in taking early action to mitigate damage to the homeowners by bringing these issues to your attention and obtaining help in treating the problems.
After lake residents continually requested help from the County regarding the high water in the spring, Sam Castro, Public Works Director, Diane Wear, County Commissioner and Jeff Lawler, Fish & Wildlife Biologist, went to the site and came up with findings that, “There are no plugged culverts impacting the flow. There is no culvert on the property just south of the lakes outfall. Jeff Lawler walked the private road and found that the channel was not obstructed and appeared to be twenty feet wide and about five feet deep. The conclusion is the area is saturated and this is the results of a high ground water table. Diamond Lake residents should consider performing a survey to determine the outfall elevation in relationship with the culvert on North Shore Rd.”
DLIA has now established a committee to look into the problem. We have notified the County Commissioners of our concerns and appraised the entire outlet area on September 14, 2011. The following is our evaluation of the state of affairs:
1.) As of Sept. 7th, the lake has only dropped 10 inches from the high point this spring. Normally the lake would have dropped at least an additional foot or more by this time of year.
2.) The outlet channel (ditch) just west of the lake on the private road (Boy Scout property?) should be dredged at the very minimum or a culvert added to allow adequate flow. - Upon checking the location on the 14th of Sept. there is no water flow and the outlet (ditch) is choked with weeds.
3.) Moon Creek from the lake to Northshore Rd. should be evaluated for any obstructions. This spring there were no obstructions, however it should be re-evaluated for potential blockage now that the weeds, etc... have grown up in the channel.
- Upon further review on the 14th, the channel from Diamond Lake to the ditch across the road is choked with weeds and Lily Pads. This should also be dredged to allow better water flow.
4.) The culvert out flow at Northshore Rd. has a large clump of grass in front of it, not allowing good flow when the water is flowing, this should be removed. The creek beyond the Culvert is completely chocked with weeds and grass; this should also be dredged to allow proper water flow.
5.) Moon Creek from Northshore Rd. to Sacheen should be evaluated for obstructions, such as weeds, grass, sand bars, beaver dens, etc... that could be stopping the flow. Currently there are so many weeds/grass in the creek at Northshore Rd. the flows are completely stopped at this point and were greatly reduced this spring during high water.
- There is a large beaver dam just west of the culvert at Northshore, this should be evaluated for removal pursuant to RCW 36.32.290
6.) There was a suggestion from the Commissioner's to perform an Outfall Elevation Survey. They gave a name of Rob Lindsey at the Spokane Conversation Dist.; after contacting him, he said he would not be able to help with a survey (he works for Spokane County), however emails have been sent to several other people including Ralph Christiansen, of the Pend Oreille Conservation District, however we have not received a response from anyone.
7.) There were several residents around the lake that had basement flooding, boat house flooding, retaining wall damage/collapse, beach damage, etc... If we have a hard winter with major snow pack and heavy spring rains, the problems will be far worse in the spring of 2012 if we don’t take a proactive approach in dealing with these problems.
8.) The County Commissioners advised us to contact the Boy Scouts to see about opening the ditch for flow. The committee has contacted Jack, Camp Cowles ranger, and Tim Mc Candless Scout Executive/CEO. They are fully supportive with anything that needs to be done to reduce flooding in the spring.
9.) We have been told to contact JoAnn Boggs regarding obtaining bags and sand this fall in preparation for spring flooding. –After our contact sand was delivered to the launch and bags are available by calling 447-3731 (JoAnn Boggs).
The county’s inspection found that the ditch on the scout property is 20 ft. wide and 5 ft. deep. After our own survey the ditch is only about 3 ft. wide and 3ft. deep where it crosses the road on the scout property. This is the area that needs to be dug down a bit and cleaned out.
It is interesting that our findings are the complete opposite of the County’s. The Commissioners continually throw the ball back to the residents to take care of the problem.
According to RCW 36.32.290 “When the board of county commissioners of any county deems it essential to the public interest for flood prevention purposes it may remove drifts, jams, logs, debris, gravel, earth, stone or bars forming obstructions to the stream, or other material from the beds, channels, and banks of watercourses in any manner deemed expedient, including the deposit thereof on bars not forming obstructions to the stream, or on subsidiary or high water channels of such watercourses.”
We wish to invoke this State Statute and request that the County take control of this situation. We offer our assistance and will gladly respond to actions by Pend Oreille County. Those of us who are on the Board of Directors of DLIA are not county engineers, we do not have heavy equipment needed to clean the outflow of the lake, nor are we qualified to fix or prevent the flooding problem, we are regular people with jobs of our own, but we know that we have had and will have a flooding problem if the outlet from Diamond Lake is not opened for flow.
We have been told by the County Commissioners to have a survey done, contact the owners of the property, contact “someone” else and basically take care of the problem ourselves. The State’s attitude differs from the County; they say it is the County’s problem to fix. It is time for the County to stop passing the buck and help this lake prevent a disaster. Please help us to fix the problem before we lose more to flooding and high water than boat houses and retainer walls.
Thank you,
Geri Guinn, President,
On Behalf of the Board of Directors and Members of
Diamond Lake Improvement Association
We will send this to:
Sam Castro – Public Works Director
Diane Wear – Commissioner
Laura Merrill – Commissioner
John Hankey – Commissioner
Todd McLaughlin – Nature Resource Manager
Brian Egland – County Manager
Gorge Luft – Public Works
Jeff Lawler – Fish & Wildlife Biologist
Fred Willenbrock – Miner
JoAnn Boggs—Emergency Management