What comes next after the fatal Pe Ell dam flaws?

Published 1:30 am Friday, June 19, 2026

Your story highlighting the indefinite pause on the fatally flawed mega-dam proposal at Pe Ell brought welcome news to all of us working to stop this enormously expensive boondoogle.

The latest problem: I’m told the soil at the proposed dam site was unstable and prone to sliding, no matter how much cement you pour on the hills.

Seemingly everyone on the Office of Chehalis Basin Board (OCB) was, at long last, in support of continuing the flood reduction programs that work and have been effective. It’s about time.

According to the OCB’s website, over 200 on-the-ground projects protecting the most flood-prone residents and businesses against catastrophic flood damage have been accomplished. Think instead what we could do with the billions that would be spent on this nonsensical dam.

Let’s spend those taxpayer dollars on flood reduction programs that work, that protect communities and rivers, don’t further threaten salmon run extinctions, and that offer proven benefits to more people in more places in the Chehalis River Basin.

I applaud this pause because it’s a move and pivot to what’s working instead of continuing to spend massive amounts of money on a project that has no guarantee of working and will cause untold damage.

But what comes next? I hope that OCB is going in the direction of redirecting funding to proven projects. I’m not a budget person, but with over $100 million spent so far on just the design and consultants for the fatally flawed proposed dam, I’m all for spending our tax dollars and projects that we know are effective.

I look forward to seeing evidence of that shift at the next board meeting.