Several citizens spoke during the “Public Business From the Floor” portion of the May City Council Meeting to talk about the potential for flooding in Alpine Woods Subdivision, along the Richardson Highway between Alpine Woods and Robe River and around the Valdez Glacier stream. In response to the comments and especially the questions from Alpine Woods subdivision residents and one with property along the Valdez Glacier Stream regarding whether or not there was some plan in place to ensure their safety and what if anything was being done about the problems that arose last year, City Manager Dennis Ragsdale asked Planning and Zoning employees to fill him in. Ragsdale was told that emergency measures would again be implemented as needed but there were no funds set aside for regular maintenance of the levees. This prompted discussion between Ragsdale and several Council Members about the advisability of adding levee maintenance to the annual capital improvements budget so that mitigating measures might be taken in advance of a problem. Ragsdale told Council that he would look more closely into the subject and report back to Council. This highlighted what may be part of the problem; the fact that while many subdivision residents and several City of Valdez employees have been involved with the previous flooding in both 2006 and 2014 and are aware of what was said and done at those times and what has happened since, Mayor, City Council Members and City Manager positions have been vacated and filled several times during that period, leaving an information gap among those ultimately responsible. Local resident Rick Wade took it upon himself to locate copies of studies and recommendations for maintenance of the levees that have been done over the years because so few people either knew about them or had read them.
The fear of flooding is nothing new to area residents. Alpine neighborhood lore has it that the very first lot sold in the subdivision, the now vacant lot at the very end of Whispering Spruce, was so severely flooded that the house on the property was moved to another location in the subdivision at the realtor’s expense, apparently because the fact that the lot is on three flood plains was not disclosed. The existing levee* does not extend behind that property. In 2006 flooding closed the Richardson Highway and caused residents in the area to be evacuated. In 2014, the ‘damalanche’ again closed the only road in and out of Valdez. Alpine Woods residents were given the option of evacuating that time too, though many stayed. The City of Valdez is in the process of getting a portion of the City-maintained levee system in the area certified by FEMA, which will prevent residents from being required to buy flood insurance when financing their property. (See previous VCN story http://valdezcitynews.com/2016/01/31/ten-mile-area-residents-meet-with-city-of-valdez-to-discuss-flood-insurance/ ) But the viability of the levee system has long been in question and residents worry whenever they see water standing along, or worse yet running down, Whispering Spruce Drive, indicating that water is coming in somewhere in the lowest portion of the subdivision which is backed by the levee. Flooding around mile six of the Richardson has also been an ongoing problem; flooding the road at the bottom of the hill and precipitating several tragedies involving the swans who nest annually in the adjacent pond as well as the phenomena of salmon swimming across the road and the potential for motor vehicle accidents. Levees were installed to clear the road by routing the water along the side of the highway and have been maintained since. The construction taking place in that area will ultimately raise the road eight feet, add new, larger culverts and hopefully solve that problem. Efforts to mitigate the Valdez Glacier stream during the summer of 2015 were temporarily effective but the action of the water has since filled in the channel that was built and washed away the fill.
Water continues to seep into the problem areas, including Old Town where the flooding was threatening KCHU Public Radio’s transmitter and washing out the road adjacent to that site. City Council called an emergency meeting regarding Valdez Glacier Stream flooding for the evening of July 21st and allocated funds for levee work there. A levee has since been built that directs the water away from the road but the new route threatens to cut off access to the radio station’s transmitter site. Crews continue working in Alpine Woods. The highway project designed to raise the section of the Richardson Highway is progressing, though it isn’t expected to be completed until October.
*Note, people in the area customarily refer to this structure as a dike, but a dike is used to hold back water that is present all the time, as in reclaimed land in The Netherlands. A levee is used to keep rising water from seasonal or storm-related flooding from entering an area . FEMA refers to it as a levee.
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