John Arum Dedication

We took a break from the flood recovery and project implementation on Friday to honor our friend John Arum.  It was a great opportunity to reflect on the work that has been completed in the last decade on Manastash Creek.  We were so pleased that John's family joined us, including his wife, mother, father, stepmother, sister, brother and sister-in-law, as well as many of his friends.  We had the opportunity to share with them the details of the project and it's importance to everyone involved. 

The Dedication Event began at the Washington Cattlemen's office in Ellensburg.  This was not just a convenient location, but the location of the very first meeting between the parties involved in the project.  Many members of the Steering Committee (past and present) shared their memories of John and how he worked with everyone involved.  John came into the Manastash prepared to pursue litigation on behalf of the Washington Environmental Council, but at the same time asking for collaboration.   Over the years, John became so familiar with the watershed and the issues and built such a level of trust, one of the irrigators stated that if he couldn't be at a meeting, John could speak for him.  Another Steering Committee member said that after working for so long on the project, it became difficult to tell who's side John was on, the fish or the irrigators.  Yet another Steering Committee member said, "whoever taught John to fight, did it well and whoever taught him to be a peacemaker did it equally well." 

After a light lunch, we took the more than 30 attendees out to the MWDA site so that they could see the on-the-ground impacts of all of the meetings and discussions over the last 10 years.

Three of these plaques were installed, one at each of the fish screen sites.  The plaques were provided by the Manastash Creek Irrigators, Ecology, BPA, HDR Engineering, the KCCD, and the American Water Resources Association.

Dale Bambrick (third from left), National Marine Fisheries Services, explains the MWDA fish screen facility to John's family.

   

HDR's Mike Garello (right), explains the MWDA facility as (right to left) Jeff Tayer (WDFW), Dale Bamrick (NMFS) and Bob Arum (John's father), listen.

The group watches as the screen's air burst cleaning system is triggered.

KCCD's Sherry Swanson talks with irrigator Dave Duncan and BPA grant manager Jay Marcotte at the MWDA site.

Larry Bland (Keach-Jensen irrigator) and Sherry

  

HDR's Mike Garello discusses the Keach-Jensen diversion with John's friends.

Left, Jeff Tayer (WDFW) talks about the Manastash Project with Brian Gruber (center).  Brian is an attorney who worked closely with John.

HDR's Gus Garcia (right) talks with Susan (center) and Liz (left), John's wife and sister, about the Keach-Jensen facility.

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Floods

Since the last post, we've experienced two flood events.  The first was March 31 through April 2nd.  That event was minor compared the second event, which is still ongoing today.  Over the weekend the area had more than 2 inches of rain and some serious snow melt.  The impacts won't be fully known until the waters recede which may not occur until at least later this week. Some rough estimates place this event in the 100 year category, particularly in the Taneum and Manastash watersheds.Here are a few pictures from our project sites.

Manastash Creek at Cove Road- looking upstream.

Barnes Road diversion facility.

Keach-Jensen diversion facility.

Keach -Jensen diversion facility.  Standing behind the building looking toward the head gates and then upstream in the creek.  Hopefully damage is limited to some erosion and deposition and the automation equipment and air burst system are okay.

MWDA/Consolidated Diversion.  Facility was shut down, but water overtopped and filled the forebay.  Note the water running over the back wall into the structure.  Again, hopefully the damage is limited to erosion and will require some clean-up but not major repairs.



Floodwaters on the south side of the 2000 block of Hanson Road.



Cherry Creek at Moe Road.  This is near the peak, although the water did come up a bit higher.  At the lower diversion site, the water actually overtopped the left bank.

Floodwaters near Wilson Creek at Thrall Road.  The creek channel proper is out of the photo to the right.

Teanaway River at Red Bridge Road.

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Busy Week Underway. . . .

It's busy as usual around our office.  We have two special Board meetings planned this week. The first is Thursday morning at 9AM. The Board and staff will be reviewing the 2010 financial report and Schedule 22. Schedule 22 is the new Annual Questionnaire for Audit Assessment created by the Conservation Commission and the State Auditor's office.  The second meeting is Friday at 2 PM to review the status of the Cherry Creek project.  The project is moving forward, but has encountered some challenges in the last few weeks.

This week, we are also beginning to wrap up our election season. We've just issued our notice of automatic re-election of Ron Gibb pursuant to WAC 135-110-370. Ron was the incumbent and the only applicant who filed bythe deadline for the position. So, no poll site, absentee balloting, or mail balloting will be performed on March 17, 2011. Notice of the Automatic Re-election will be posted atthe polling sites (Cle Elum Senior Center, County Courthouse, and the KCCD office) and published in the Daily Record and Upper Kittitas County Tribune. March will bring the end of election season, as any applications for appointed position on our Board are due to the Washington Conservation Commission. Applications are available on our website and are due to the Commission by March 31, 2011. For further information, please contact the KCCD at 509-925-8585, ext. 4.

Construction continues both at Cherry Creek and at Keach-Jensen on Manastash Creek.  This week should bring some more testing and start up work at Keach-Jensen and a big push to complete the rock weirs at the lower Cherry Creek diversion site.  Alsok, last week some follow-up work at the MWDA/Consolidated Diversion occurred.  There have been some issues with controls and the low pressure blower over the winter season and a team of technicians and project staff worked on addressing those issues.  While that was happening, WDFW maintenance staff took advantage of the site dewatering to sluice out the built up silt.

Nearly 1,000 feet of 24" pipeline are part the project at Cherry Creek.  As of the end of last week, approximately two thirds of it was completed.

Two concrete manholes are part of the new piping system.  They were set yesterday, and the pipeline connecting them (that goes under Cherry Creek) was installed.

This photo is a great shot of the rock weirs at Keach-Jensen after a bit of snow late last week.

The project engineer, contractor and service technicians for the controls watch as the forebay is filled for the first time.  The fish screen is the inclined panel on the left side of the forebay.

While the MWDA site was dewatered for the work on the low pressure blower, WDFW maintenance staff sluiced out the silt that had built up last year.

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Keach-Jensen

The Keach-Jensen diversion structure and fish screen is nearing the start-up and testing phase.  The WDFW crew from the Yakima Construction Shop has completed most of their work and installed the fish screens, hand rails and grating.  The plumbing and electrical contractors have been working on the air system and the controls.  Some of the testing should begin in about a week.

Plumbing subcontractor has been working on the air burst system delivery lines.

The WDFW Yakima Screen Shop crew installing the handrails.  They also installed the fish screen panels and the louvered trash racks at the headgate.

 

The electrical subcontractors are working on the control system.  This is the main control panel, where the diversion rate is set and the gates are controlled.

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Effects of January Flood Event

Our projects survived the flood event over the last week in relatively good shape.   There was some damage but nothing catastrophic. This flood event was definitely less severe that the 2009 event.  Here are a few pictures of project sites in the County.


The fish screen installed in Dry Creek in November had some erosion of the backfill around it, but no damage to the actual structure.  



The Teanaway was very high as well.  This the downstream side of the Red Bridge Road bridge.  The pump station on the opposite bank is involved in a potential project this year.  Any additional downcutting at this site may not be visible until the flows recede.

This is the Ellensburg Water Company diversion on Currier Creek, which was a project from 2008.  The flows were high, but there appears to be no damage to the structure.

We were lucky at our two active construction sites.  The contractors were not working in either stream at the time the event.  At Cherry Creek, the flows were substantial as this site is below the confluence of Cooke Creek, Caribou Cree, Parke Creek and Johnson Drain.  Just a few days before the event, Cherry Creek was returned to the channel and the bypass channel was filled.  

This is looking upstream toward the Moe Road bridge on Friday January 14th.

This is the same basic angle on Cherry Creek on Sunday afternoon when the creek was continuing to rise.  There was some erosion along the banks but it was relatively minor.

 At Keach-Jensen on Manastash Creek, the contractor has been out of the creek for some time, but the bypass channel was still active up until last week.  That was due in part to the freezing temperatures and the fact that the creek and the bypass channel had ice in them.

This is the first real event for the new structure.  The water level was pretty high and there was quite a bit of ice in the creek during the first couple of days of the event.  This photo was taken on Tuesday.

 

This is looking upstream across the rock weirs that were built earlier in the fall.  This photo was taken just yesterday when the flows were still relatively high.

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Winter Construction Continues. . .

At Cherry Creek, the instream work at the upper site is wrapping up.  The WCC crew has been working on the coir fabric and planting (cuttings for now) along the bank.  The contractor is completing restoration of area used for the bypass channel.  At the lower site, they've begun trimming trees to allow access into the stream.  As the trees were trimmed, a lot of debris was found in the banks consisting mostly of broken concrete pipe and concrete ditch.  The contractor will begin excavation of the bypass channel at this lower site today.  This should take a few days and work on the weirs won't begin until at least late next week.

Reecer Creek Excavating continues to clean-up at the upper site on Cherry Creek and move equipment and materials to the lower site.

The WCC crew laid out the coir fabric for erosion control and installed lots of cuttings to help to stabilize and protect the streambank.  The contractor installed the rootwads and rock in the lower corner of the picture.

Trimming the trees at the lower site on Cherry Creek changed the look of the creek.  That's the diversion dam in the upper corner of the picture.

At Keach-Jensen, the work is focused on completing the building.  Much of the remaining work will be completed by the electrical and plumbing subs. Manastash Creek was at least partially returned to the channel last week.  With the forecast now calling for the possibility of small stream flooding, the project is in a good position to deal with higher flows.

The equipment building is nearly complete.  Belsaas & Smith will be adding trusses and roofing shortly.

Manastash Creek flowing in front of the head gates and down the rock weirs.  This view in the snow shows the design that brings the low flow to the head gate and then out away and into the channel. 

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Water back in the Creeks

It's always a big step in a project to return creek flow to the channel where work has been completed.  By the end of this week, two of our projects returned water their respective channels, although the projects are at different stages of overall completion.
At the Keach-Jensen project on Manastash Creek, the weirs that were constructed weeks ago finally had water running through them.  At the same time, the contractor is constructing the equipment building and the plumbing and electrical subcontractors are beginning their work on the facility.

Manastash Creek water flowing down the weirs next the fish screen facility for the first time.

The equipment building is underway at Keach Jensen.

 At Cherry Creek, the upper set of weirs is now constructed. The weirs were started just last week.  The water was switched today from the bypass channel back to the creek.  Next week will see the beginning of work at the lower diversion.

The contractor removing the bulk bag dam from Cherry Creek.

Cherry Creek water flowing across the new weirs.

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December Work

I'm a bit behind on blog posts!  December has a busy month so far.  Most of the concrete work is now done on the Keach-Jensen project.  The next big push in the schedule is back filling around the structure and preparation for the block building.

Work on the backside of the structure, including the walls for the Keach and Jensen ditch outlets

Forming the walls for the ditch outlets.

Weather became an issue and the site needed to be protected from snow and then heated for the pour.

The final big pour occurred last week.and the structure itself is substantially complete.

After some delays, the Cherry Creek Project is finally underway.  The project includes fish screens and irrigation delivery improvements for three water right holders and the correction of two passage barriers.  Those barriers currently block access to 2 miles of stream.  The project is located west of Moe Road on Cherry Creek.

A substantial road into the lower part of the project site was constructed.  The road allows the streambed rock and weir rock to be hauled in and stockpiled.

This is the lower diversion structure that will be removed and replaced with a series of 8 rock weirs.

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Manastash Construction Update

Keach-Jensen is moving right along!  The outside wall is complete, as are the rock weirs and the fish bypass pipe. The work continues on the outlet portions of the structures.

Forming the slab for the Keach Ditch outlet

Forming the slab for the Jensen Ditch outlet

 

Pouring the slab for the Jensen Ditch outlet



Finishing the rock weirs after the outside wall was completed.



The MWDA/Consolidated Diversion had a few punch list items left, including a security fence.  The fence is now installed. Other remaining items include a debris boom in front of the headgates and work on the programing the automation.

The security fence was completed at the MWDA/Consolidated Diversion.

AL