Bonneville Pool Floods The Dalles Riverfront Park
Communication between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local agencies appear to be lacking, resulting in unanticipated damages to public property.
Several picnic tables and a covered picnic shelter have been affected by recent flooding of The Dalles Riverfront Park. Photo Credit: Cole Goodwin
Updated June 15th, 2022 at 4:30 p.m. to include comments from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
By Cole Goodwin
Flooding of riverbanks, public beaches, and parks including The Dalles Riverfront Park has been occurring up and down the Columbia River for several days now due to a rise in the Bonneville pool, which is the section of river that sits between Bonneville and The Dalles Dam.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials say rising river levels are due to heavy spring and summer rains.
“Of primary concern to us at this point is public safety,” said Steve Barton, chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Columbia Basin Water Management Division. “This system of dams was built primarily to protect the public from catastrophic floods. While we cannot prevent all flooding, we can take steps to minimize the impacts of these powerful weather events.”
Dams throughout the Columbia Basin have been releasing hundreds of thousands of cubic feet per second since June 9th and a minor flood warning has been issued in the Vancouver area by the National Weather Service until tomorrow evening.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have said that staff will continue to monitor conditions and coordinate with regional water managers and the National Weather Service.
However communication between the USACE and local agencies appears to be lacking.
Picnic tables half submerged due to flooding at The Dalles Riverfront Park. Photo Credit: Cole Goodwin
Scott Baker, Executive Director of Northern Wasco County Parks and Recreation District. said that NWCPRD had received no notification that USACE would be raising the water level of the Bonneville pool.
“We’re at the mercy of the powers that be,” said Baker. “Riverfront park is partially flooded right now. And flooding causes a lot of damage to our irrigation systems and electrical issues at our shelter picnic area. So, these flooded areas are going to require a lot of repairs.”
A flood affected covered picnic shelter at The Dalles Riverfront Park. Photo Credit: Cole Goodwin
A temporary structure made of driftwood overlooks The Dalles Riverfront Park. Photo Credit: Cole Goodwin
Those repairs further diminish the district’s maintenance funds.
“Flooding also causes a large amount of woody debris to be washed up into the park. These debris have to be removed by staff, largely by hand, to prevent damage to mowers,” said Baker.
“If we had notification we would have prepared our Riverfront park for flooding,” said Baker in conclusion.
CCCNews reached out to USACE for further comment regarding flood warning communications between USACE and local officials. USACE responded today with the following:
“The atmospheric river that passed over the region over the past week dumped a lot of water over a four state region, plus British Columbia,” said Matt Rabe Public Affairs Regional Director of the Northwestern Division, of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“Our reservoir managers, who work in concert with dam managers with several agencies, are managing a system that potentially impacts a lot of communities across the region, and they do everything within their power to minimize flood damages to all those communities. Despite their best efforts we know there sometimes will be flood impacts….as we are seeing at The Dalles, Vancouver, Kalispell, Montana, and other locations with low elevation infrastructure.”
“We are sorry the parks district was not aware of the size of this storm nor the impact it would have on our releases from The Dalles Dam and, by extension The Dalles Riverfront Park. We would invite them to call us to help us better understand the park’s topography and thresholds for impacts, and discuss options for getting information about river flows.”
“The Bonneville Pool is operating within its normal ranges, but the volume of water moving past The Dalles (450,000 cfs) is what is causing the heightened river stages at The Dalles,” said Rabe.
Flows will remain high for the next couple of weeks as we work to move this excess water through the system.
