Editor,
I am concerned about the misrepresentation of the Ebey’s Prairie drainage problem written by Ron Newberry in the April 14 issue of The Whidbey Examiner. I am not criticizing Mr. Newberry. He is one of your best staff reporters and does an excellent job, always. The problem is reporters report what they are told during their interviews. And that is the problem with Newberry’s article titled “Prairie’s Flood of Concerns.”
I am going to explain why I feel qualified to comment on the flooding problem. During 1979, I was on crutches for a period of time. It had something to do with a toboggan. Since I could not farm, I was looking for projects I could do. Herb Pickard, owner of Prairie Center Mercantile, owned farmland south of Highway 20. When the state highway was built during the 1960s, the engineers allowed the water runoff to go across Herb’s property which occasionally flooded part of his farmland. He started the process with the SCS (Soil Conservation Service) trying to drain his fields. The project became pretty involved. Herb was a very busy businessman and he let the project drop. I became involved and completed what Pickard had started.
Seems as though Pickard’s property drained into Engle’s Pond (by the bowling alley) and across Ebey’s Prairie to Ebey’s Landing. All of the impervious surface areas, hospital, mobile home court, Main Street, the school, etc. drained into the 12-inch pipe. Problem was, the 12-inch pipe had been failing for years. It was installed during the 1920s. Being made of concrete, 12-inch by 12-inch with one-inch thick walls, the tops occasionally collapsed and blew out. I know all about that because I repaired many of the failed areas. In most cases I found trash, bottles, cans, plastic, etc. The entrances into the pipe had not been maintained. A new cross prairie drain tile was needed.
With me doing the paper work and SCS drawing the plans and doing the survey work, a contractor was hired and the new 15-inch PVC pipe was installed. The drain pipe was perforated and completely imbedded in pea gravel so that if it contacted water anywhere along its route the water would be drained away. A 12-inch pipe was installed from Engle’s pond to Engle Road. One thing that I absolutely insisted on was that none of the old drain pipes would be hooked up to the new one. All of the old pipes were failing and had trash in them. What the contractor did when he crossed one of the old tiles was to cut the old tile and fill the area with pea gravel so the old tile would drain into the new pipe through the perforations. As I recall the 15-inch drain pipe was designed for a 100-year storm which means that it would suffice for an extremely large source of water runoff. It was also designed for expansion of impervious surfaces such as the new hospital addition.
Most of the cost of construction was paid by the SCS. Those benefiting from the new drain pipe paid the rest. The cost was proportioned out according to the amount of impervious surfaces and farm land the participants owned.
So, what about Lake Ralph? Well, the old 6-inch tile failed and the owners did not want to repair it. As Newberry reported, the county installed a catch basin three years ago so Lake Ralph could be drained. Nothing has happened and each year the lake gets larger. One of the problems with that drain line is it begins at Ebey Road and for years there has been no screen over the entrance from the ditch.
OK, I have rambled enough but in closing I am listing the misinformation in the Newberry article.
The old 12-inch drain line is concrete, not clay
The 12-inch line was not installed by Chinese laborers. The drainage line was installed by the farmers who had the drainage problem. There were only a couple of Chinese left in our area during the 1920s and they were old.
The article stated there was an uphill water problem that drained into Lake Ralph. Not true except for the water from a small portion of Ebey Road.
Since the new 15-inch line was installed there has never been any backup flooding in south Coupeville.
The 15-inch line was not connected to any of the old drain lines.
Replacing the Engle 6-inch line might cost $10,000 but a ditch dug by a tractor like they do on the Skagit flats would cost less than $100.
Yes, many other farm fields have been partially flooded this year. Most of them have never had drain tiles. They were not needed. One exception. There is an old 4-inch clay tile under the Willowood farm (Georgie Smith) pond. It has obviously failed.
As stated previously, the 15-inch tile was designed to take care of additional town expansion.
Quoted from the article, “Those drainage systems are not designed and engineered for that volume of water.” Not true. Yes, that is true with the old tile systems but the 15-inch line that was put in place circa 1980 was designed to take anything Mother Nature could give it.
Roger Sherman
Retired farmer
Coupeville
