Every heavy rain shows ring dike is needed now

Well, once again we dodged a bullet, the atmospheric river hit mostly just south of us this time. Two years ago the atmospheric river hit the Skagit watershed pretty hard, but Whatcom County got hammered and towns along the Canadian border were devastated.

This past week the Stillaguamish River at Arlington had the highest flows in history. Had either of these systems fully hit the Skagit watershed, it could have been a catastrophe for our vulnerable small town.

No, this missing section of dike (ring, northeast of the schools – ed.) is an extreme liability to the town. Knowing that we’ve needed this important piece of infrastructure for decades, without getting it built, probably puts the town in a “precarious” position, should a flood cause tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to our properties, especially when a perfectly plausible and feasible plan for its construction has been ignored for nearly a decade now.

Just because the plan sounds outlandish, doesn’t mean that it is. Inventors are often cast off as quacks, conspiracy theorists and contrarians, but seldom as saviors of their community. Yeah, you have to know that this inventor of a new dike design has been as patient as a saint, constantly hoping to get my plan to be at least listened to.

The plan and design is actually quite simple and pays for its own construction in short order. So, why are our elected officials so challenged by what they don’t know much about? The Port of Skagit once gave me fifteen minutes, which was about one-sixth the time necessary to get a decent understanding of the concept conveyed.

If we continue to kick this can down the road while we’re vulnerable and there’s a plausible plan that’s being ignored, well, I think any of us reading this, can catch my drift.

Sincerely,

Glen S. Johnson

Skagit Valley