Dredging Of Chester Creek Should Relieve Flood Threat

Relief is coming for victims of repeated floods along Dishman-Mica Road.

Spokane County commissioners last week approved a $269,000 contract to remove sediment, brush and other debris from about a mile of Chester Creek.

The small stream starts near the town of Mica and seeps into the ground east of the Dishman-Hills Natural Area. TLJ Construction of Nine Mile Falls will dredge the creek between Thorpe and Schafer roads.

Work will start sometime this month, assuming the county gets necessary state permits, said public works director Dennis Scott. The project should take about a month, he said.

A mere trickle most summers, Chester Creek normally spills over its banks at least once a year.

Flooding has gotten worse as portions of the hills surrounding the creek have been cleared, paved and developed. And while flooding once was a harmless, natural occurrence, there now are homes and other developments in the path of the silt-carrying water.

This year, the creek flooded in January and again in March, turning a mobile home into an island, creating a lake at Painted Hills Golf Course and threatening some houses.

TLJ crews will remove about 14,500 cubic yards of fine sand from the creek bed, said project engineer Steve Worley. That’s enough to fill 1,450 dump trucks.

The sediment washed from the hills and farms along the creek, and in places is two feet deep.

Union Pacific Railroad has volunteered to dispose of the silt along its tracks, south of the Chester Creek watershed, said Worley. That offer saves the county nearly $200,000 in disposal costs, he said.

, DataTimes