Preparing For Worst Engineers Get Area Ready For Meltdown Of Big Mountain Snowpack

A menace roosts above this hamlet and grows larger with every snowfall.

But residents aren’t waiting for warm weather to unleash the mountain snowpack in a torrent of flood waters. Instead, they’ve enlisted the help of the federal government to prevent spring mayhem.

Contractors for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are working seven days a week to remove excess gravel and driftwood from Lightning Creek’s bed.

On Saturday, excavators perched atop mounds of stream gravel loaded truckload after truckload to make way for the big melt.

“If we have a flood of the magnitude that’s been looked at with a crystal ball, there’s going to be plenty of room for water to get through there,” said John Coyle, Corps of Engineers resource manager.

The justification for the work is a snowpack estimated to be 200 percent of normal in the Lightning Creek drainage and a stream bed fully loaded from previous floods.

Clark Fork residents worried that if the spring runoff rivaled that of 1996-97, gravel and debris would pile up on Highway 200 and railroad bridge pilings, causing the creek to overrun the levy, flooding town. The city’s water line, which crosses the river, also was at risk.

Mayor Linda Reed and Bonner County commissioners declared a state of emergency for Clark Fork in order to qualify for the work, funded by $250,000 from the Corps of Engineers.

“It wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t started squawking and if they hadn’t followed through,” Coyle said. “We are a bureaucracy, so there is some pretty hefty paperwork.”

Similar efforts may be needed in Kellogg and St. Maries, according to Coyle and the Idaho Bureau of Disaster Services.

The snowpack throughout the Panhandle is 125 percent of normal, according to the National Weather Service. But pockets, like the mountains feeding Lightning Creek, are reaching record levels.

“It’s starting to look a little scary,” Coyle said.

But not as scary as 1996-97, said Brian Avery, hydrologist with the Weather Service. That year the overall snowpack was 145 to 150 percent of normal. Another difference this year: There’s less snow below 3,000 feet.

“Without that large low-level snowpack in place, it’s hard to get big flooding going on,” Avery said.

Still, Avery expects to see some flooding along the Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe rivers - especially if warm weather causes a quick runoff.

That could be bad news for Kellogg and St. Maries.

In Kellogg, work has yet to be completed on a $13 million flood-control project for Milo Creek. The first phase is finished through Wardner, but Milo Creek still winds through inadequate piping under Kellogg.

The snowpack above Kellogg is close to 1996 levels. Local and state authorities are concerned that if a big runoff occurs this spring, Milo Creek could blow out again, flooding Kellogg’s city streets.

This week, the Corps of Engineers will look at Milo Creek to see if anything can be done to prevent a repeat of the spring 1997 flooding.

Also being eyed is St. Maries’ floodwall and the Meadowhurst dike, said Richard Wolfe of the Bureau of Disaster Services.

The floodwall, built in the 1940s, is old, the pilings are rotten and the wall is starting to lean. Meanwhile, 400 feet of the Meadowhurst dike is in need of immediate repair.

“The river’s scouring under it and causing it to slough off in a pretty major way,” Wolfe said.

And that’s with the river at normal levels.

“We expect to see flood stage on the St. Joe River no matter what kind of run-off we have,” he said.

Wolfe said there’s no federal money available for the dike work in St. Maries. The county and city will have to find funds for an emergency fix, he said.

Back in Clark Fork, workers have to take care they don’t dig too deep, for fear of damaging the creek for bull trout spawning.

Lightning Creek was historically one of the biggest producers of bull trout. Now, only 200 to 300 of the threatened fish spawn in the creek, said Chip Corsi of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Corsi, Coyle, Reed and others would like to see a permanent solution for Lightning Creek that both protects property and bull trout.

“This is kind of a Band-aid to let folks sleep easier,” Corsi said. “Down the line, we’ll look at something that would be a longer-term fix, so this wouldn’t have to happen every couple of years.”