Flood wall in permit review as winter tides approach

Snee-oosh Beach offers a beautiful waterside view, but also carries a lingering threat of occasional flooding.

In March 2016, a section of Chilberg Avenue on the Swinomish Reservation was overtaken by Skagit Bay’s tidal waters. The water flowed onto several homeowners’ yards on McGlinn Drive, damaging the properties.

Five homeowners decided to build a 250- to 300-foot-long “garden wall,” spanning across their yards in hopes of preventing a repeat occurrence. However, the project has not gone smoothly.

After a third of the wall had been completed, a “Stop Work Order” from the Swinomish Department of Environmental Protection halted construction on Nov. 15.

Earlier this month, Eric Anderson from E.L.A. Designs, LLC, submitted applications for two tribal permits. He had created the design plans for the wall and is representing the five homeown-ers. A separate company is handling construction.

Anderson said they hope to hear back from the tribe this month.

Because the project is within 200 feet of the shoreline and involves trenching, it requires a tribal-issued Shoreline Permit, according to the tribe, which refers to it as a “flood wall.”

But first, an archeological permit will be needed, as a “shell midden” site was discovered after trenching had begun.

A letter sent to each of the five properties on Dec. 6, explained the reasons for the halt. The midden found is described as “cooking rock, animal bone, mussel shell and charcoal.”

The Tribal Historic Preservation Office said the area was once an ancestral village. The letter also said a Swinomish elder remembers “the presence of the midden on-site when he was a teenager in the 60’s prior to the houses being constructed.”

It may be some time before homeowners know whether permits will be issued.

“The Department is committed to moving expeditiously,” Allan Olson, the tribe’s general manager, wrote in an email. He said the timing will depend on the project and the time needed to evaluate the site and come up with a solution.

Anderson said he had been completely cleared by the county for the project — he hadn’t been told he needed to apply for any permits at all, he said.

However, according to a November statement from the tribe, the county said they had directed the applicant to talk to the tribe to see if their project would require a tribal permit, but “the project proponents did not contact the tribe.”

Chilberg Avenue, which lies between the beach and the homeowners’ yards, is owned by Skagit County. The homeowners’ land is within the boundaries of the reservation but is private property as “fee simple” land.

Anderson said there would be no concerns — from drainage to the digging — had his design plans been followed exactly.

He says if the trenching had been kept less than 12 inches, there would be no archeological concerns, because that layer of soil has been brought in by the county in past years for other berm projects. In his application to the tribe, his proposed mitigation is to only dig 8 to 12 inches deep to avoid the shell midden below 18 inches. His plans describe it as a 30- to 36-inch-tall wall made of “decorative Eco Blocks.”

According to Olson, the applications received by the tribe on Jan. 3 include the Shorelines and Sensitive Areas Permit Application, the Tribal Environmental Policy Act Environmental Checklist and the Archaeological Excavation Permit Application, totaling $300. The related archeological fees will cost an estimated $4,785, he said.

In the meantime, the tribe said it would allow placement of a sandbag flood berm once a site plan was submitted and approved. Olson said the tribe has not received any plans yet.

La Conner Town Administrator John Doyle, who also holds certification as a floodplain manager, said the area near Chilberg Avenue tends to flood when the town floods severely, and tides during winter storms are risky due to low atmospheric pressure.

“The so-called King Tide season is from mid-December to mid-February. The tidal events are predictable, since they are driven by the moon phases,” Doyle said. “Storm surge tides during King Tide season can be 3 feet higher that predicted.”

The area was identified as a high risk for costal flooding and sea level rise in the tribe’s 2009 Climate Report, Olson said. The tribe plans to work with the Chilberg Avenue property owners on the flooding problems and has recently received funding from a federal costal grant to use on such areas, he said