Local officials talk floodplain

Shoshone County Planning and Zoning director Dan Martinson spoke with several local officials Wednesday morning concerning the many floodplain issues that Kellogg, Pinehurst, and Smelterville are facing with the recent weather.

Kellogg Mayor Mac Pooler, the Shoshone Board of County Commissioners, representatives from engineering companies, and other state and federal agencies listened as Martinson discussed how the typical Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) floodplain designation map doesn’t necessarily fit the Silver Valley.

“It’s just not good science,” Martinson said. “My biggest issue with their flood way map is that they have made a lot of assumptions that just don’t fit reality.”

Martinson was able to show the attendees several maps where the various floodplain designations are highlighted.

While he spoke he was able to speculate on some of the fallacies that he found while investigating the matter.

For example, there is an area in Smelterville, between the Shoshone Medical Center building and the waste water treatment plant that is considered to be out of the floodplain, however the entire surrounding area is highlighted as floodplain, the only thing that would get that area out the floodplain is if it was raised up, but according to Martinson it isn’t.

“That area has had a variety of remediation projects done on it,” Martinson said. “But why is this property an island in the floodplain when it is the same level as the areas around it?"

Due to the map designation that shows Smelterville highlighted as floodplain, there is a darker highlight through the town that indicates a more severe area for possible flooding.

The highlighted area looks like a river that winds through the residential area of Smelterville, Martinson thinks it could be an old creek bed of some sort, but with all the development that has gone on, including the construction of homes, churches, and businesses as well as the roads projects, that highlighted area of severity shouldn’t be on the map.

In Kellogg, Martinson discussed how Silver Mountain’s existence in the Floodplain, as well as a lot of the businesses that are on the south side of the Coeur d’Alene River in the downtown area of Kellogg could really benefit from some added flood prevention measures.

“We’ve got Silver Mountain and a lot of other economic impact right in that area that warrants protecting with some sort of protection structure,” Martinson said.

Martinson had an idea of building a flood protection structure that runs along the south bank of the CDA River for the length of Kellogg.

“If we have some freak flood accident and it goes 6-inches over, well at least we were somewhat better protected, but if that freak flooding accident were to happen now, we’d be in a lot of trouble,” Martinson said. “I think we need to look at and discuss what it would take to get some sort of flood protection structure in here that could change the flow of how these floodplains are looked at and help change the floodplain designation maps.”

Getting the maps changed could potentially help residents in the floodplain lower their massive flood insurance costs significantly.

Kellogg residents pay a reported $1 million per year in flood insurance costs according to figures that were discussed at the meeting.