Construction to Start on Storm Damage Protection in No 1 Canyon

Construction is set to begin next month on four flood basins in No. 1 Canyon just west of Wenatchee in the Cascade Mountain foothills.

A consultant for the Chelan County Flood Control Zone District designed the series of four basins on 21 acres at the end of No. 1 Canyon Road that'll capture, and release flood flows downstream in an attempt to minimize future damage.

They'll complement a series of detention basins that were built lower down the canyon in 2015.

The canyon’s natural drainage system has a long history of experiencing occasional heavy runoff that often includes debris and mud flows. The flows, which are typically caused by high intensity storms, have grown more destructive as the Wenatchee community’s urban area has grown.

Both No. 1 and No. 2 Canyon Roads were closed for a week to let crews clean up debris after a heavy storm brought flooding on June 5th.

Commissioner Bob Bugert says the four new basins are a major step forward in minimizing damage from the storms.

"These flood basins will really mitigate that," said Bugert. "It'll slow down the surge of the flood, a lot of the debris and the salt, and everything like that will settle in these basins."

The project will allow the debris from storm runoffs to be deposited within the basins and overflow channels before it could cause a system failure downstream.

On a much smaller scale, a similar series of detention basins was built in 2015 further down No. 1 Canyon Road, at milepost 2.6. Over the last five years, it has been effective in decreasing the amount of sediment entering the City of Wenatchee's storm water system, with the sediment being replaced with an increase in the volume of water.

The construction portion of the project will cost about $1.3 million. It will be paid for with a nearly $1 million grant from FEMA and with money from the county's Flood Control Zone District money.

Construction of the basins will begin in August.