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Pond owners get notices they have illegal dams

By Paul Gottlieb
Peninsula Daily News

Posted 3/30/09


EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second of a two-part series on the designation of six water impoundment areas as illegal, hazardous dams.


SEQUIM -- Doug Short, who grew up in Sequim and lives part-time in Port Townsend, wanted to do "that karma thing."

He leased his hatchery to the state of Washington to help revive historic Jimmycomelately Creek west of Sequim and doesn't profit from the deal, although the salmon-bearing waterway goes through his property.

He also fenced his portion of the creek with 200-foot setbacks when only 50 feet was required and donated that property to the public to guarantee the habitat would be forever protected.

But recently the state Dam Safety Office of the Department of Ecology sent him a letter telling him a water impoundment area on his property is actually a high-hazard earthen dam.

The agency named it the Short-Brower Dam ¬­-- for him and his wife, Vanessa Brower -- and said it could endanger at least three nearby homes.

He thought he just had a pond, and now he has a dam named after him that he's been told could cause the death of his neighbors if it fails.

"I never really looked at it as a dam," Short said.

"It's a pond. It's for watering cattle, to feed my hatchery, which does endangered species.

"When you do good deeds, you're supposed to get it back ¬­-- that karma thing. It's seems like it's not working out that way with this property."

Short, who has an engineering background, expects he'll have to enlarge the pond.

Work of that magnitude will cost upward of $100,000 if he does it right, he said, and he's hoping for help from the Jamestown S'Klallam tribe or the Clallam Conservation District.

Enlarge pond

Neither Short nor 140 other property owners who recently received bombshell notices that they had significant- or high-hazard dams on their property will get financial help from the state to upgrade their dams.

A significant-hazard dam could damage one or two homes if it fails. There are two in Jefferson County.

A high-hazard dam could damage three or more homes and cause loss of life if it fails. There are four in Clallam County.

Neither Short nor five other property owners who received notices on the North Olympic Peninsula were aware they had dams on their property, they said in interviews. They said they thought they just had ponds or lakes.

The responsibility for DOE-approved repairs rests with the present property owners.

In 1971, Short's uncle bought the property Short and his wife now own, and the pond was already there.

Short bought the property in 1991 for $250,000.

"If I had known this was a pending issue, I would have never done it," Short said.

"I think it sucks. If they truly had these laws, why didn't they enforce them?

"I'm all for public safety, but not when you get blind-sided like this."

Other dams

Below are other, nonpermitted, high-hazard dams in Clallam County:

• Third Mountain Dam

He thought it was just a lake.

That's why Andrew Shogren, 44, of Sequim bought 13.7 acres of undeveloped land on Deer Park Road east of Port Angeles for $175,000 in 1995.

It captures runoff from a nearby watershed.

"You knew there was a path around the lake," he said.

"I did not know it was a dam. I was very surprised to get the letter. I thought it was a lake on 13 acres of property.

"It was the reason we purchased the property. I had to sit down to digest it to really understand where they were coming from. It was quite a shock."

But the dam impounding the water has multiple and serious structural problems, said Dam Safety Office Inspector Guy Hoyle-Dotson.

Trees growing on the crest have penetrated the dam, providing pathways for seepage.

If a tree falls, exposing a root bowl, it could uproot part of the crest, Hoyle-Dotson said.

For Hoyle-Dotson's office even to inspect the dam, Shogren must clear the vegetation.

Shogren will have to install a spillway, at the very least, Hoyle-Dotson said.

Four nearby houses are endangered by the dam, he said.

While his office doesn't know how many people live in the four houses endangered by the dam, the equation the office uses is four people per house.

"Other houses could also be impacted," he said.

Just 100 paces off Deer Park Road and visible to motorists, Shogren's lake was a popular neighborhood recreation spot before Shogren bought it.

A sign posted on a tree warns that any previous invitations to use it for hunting, fishing or other recreation are no longer valid.

Illegal hunting has occurred there and other warning signs torn down, it says.

Shogren is expecting the fix to cost about $20,000.

"Hopefully, it will cost under six figures," Shogren said.

• Interfor Pacific Dam

A storage pond at the Interfor lumber and building products mill on U.S. Highway 101 west of Port Angeles has a valid stormwater permit issued by Ecology, mill manager Steve Kroll said.

The Dam Safety Office said the pond has a wall in the back, Kroll said.

"They consider that a dam," he said.

The pond is intended to hold water that then evaporates on its own.

It was built in 1998, meeting water quality standards for Ecology, "but the Dam Safety Office was not informed of it," Hoyle-Dotson said.

"We haven't done a breach analysis, but going by what it looks like is close to the breach path, at least a half a dozen homes could be hit. Based on that, it makes it a high-hazard dam."

Kroll said, "We'll do whatever DOE wants us to do."

• Lohrer Dam

Dale and Carol Lohrer's pond could potentially endanger 15 downstream homes, all within a 6-foot elevation of the breach path, Hoyle Dotson said.

The water is impounded "in a very large wetland" on Melton Road southwest of Port Angeles, he said, estimating its size at 50 acre-feet.

"That's why it came to our attention."

Dale Lohrer said the pond had already been inspected.

"They said we were not a problem," he said.

But Johnson said Friday no final decision had been reached.

"We think it's probably not be a problem, but we need to review our survey results, just to confirm," he said.

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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.