Lake Roosevelt Administrative History

Landslides

Landslides along the shores of Lake Roosevelt were a major problem in the early years of the reservoir when the rising waters caused hillsides to slump. Lake drawdowns continue to cause landslides because the steep, saturated banks become unstable when support from the water in the lake is removed. Waves from boat wakes or high winds also cause shoreline erosion, and other minor factors include heavy rainfall, earthquakes, irrigation of adjoining land, freezing and thawing, building construction, and wedging action by tree roots.

Building a concrete retaining wall at Evans Beach, early 1960s. Gabions and metal-sheet piling have also been used to reduce erosion at developed sites. Photo courtesy of National Park Service, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (LARO.HQ.MENG).

Many slides occurred in the 1940s, both as the reservoir filled and after it reached high pool in mid-July of 1942. Perhaps the largest was a 1949 slide in Hawk Creek Bay that created a wave some sixty-five feet high that swept across the lake and continued more than one hundred feet up the opposite bank. All told, about five hundred slides occurred between 1941 and 1953. Sand slides along the lakeshore usually stabilized after one slippage, but slides in silt and clay slid repeatedly. [71]

The Bureau of Reclamation has always had lead responsibility for dealing with landslides and shore erosion along Lake Roosevelt, but it is really a joint concern with the Park Service because landslides directly affect LARO operations. Reclamation policy since the 1940s has been to acquire any lands that are located within potential slide areas that have been or could be readily improved. If landowners are unwilling to sell, Reclamation seeks releases from damages due to slides. Between 1941 and 1969, some six thousand acres of slide-prone land were acquired. For land in potential slide areas within the two reservations, legislation amending the Act of June 29, 1940, allowed the federal government to take such land without challenge. The government did have to pay fair market value, however. Graves from a number of cemeteries had to be relocated in the 1940s and 1950s because they were located in critical slide areas. [72]

Construction of homes along the lakeshore in the 1960s led to higher land values. Reclamation focused on acquiring unstable areas that were most likely to be developed. During the 1970s, the CCT expressed concerns about the Reclamation program to acquire land threatened by landslide activity. They wanted any such lands that had shown no slide activity returned to the tribes. Some people believed that land had been taken under false pretexts. This remained an issue into the 1980s, but Reclamation continues to acquire land in potential slide areas. [73]

LARO's Superintendent and staff were quite involved with the landslide studies of the 1940s because identification of potential slide areas affected planning of recreational areas and issuing of special use permits. As LARO Superintendent Claude Greider commented in 1950, "It is becoming increasingly evident that geological factors are more and more important to our planning program." The Park Service solicited help from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in evaluating areas proposed for major recreational development, summer homes, and industrial or agricultural uses. As a result, USGS, Reclamation, and the Park Service agreed on plans for a multi-year study, starting in 1949, conducted by Fred Jones of the USGS. LARO provided boat transportation for the project. The primary purpose was to understand slide conditions along the Upper Columbia River, but Jones also provided detailed informal reports on specific sites as requested by the Park Service. Discovery of potential slide conditions necessitated new master plans for certain areas, such as Fort Spokane. LARO began to install warning signs in 1951 to alert the public to danger from landslides and to diminish Park Service liability in case a landslide harmed a park visitor. [74]

Although landslide activity decreased after the 1950s, some large slides did occur in later years. In March 1969, a landslide dammed the Spokane River for nearly thirty-six hours. The river rose approximately thirty feet behind the 15 million cubic yards of earth before breaching the dam. This and other slides that year were associated with the extreme drawdown due to the construction of the third powerhouse. Overall slide activity increased between 1969 and 1975 and then tapered off again. LARO's 1968 master plan noted that landslides were still a major planning consideration. Erosion of the lakeshore by wave action also remained a problem at some developed areas and caused many trees to fall into the lake. Reclamation had an ongoing program to stabilize the most critical slide areas. LARO maintenance personnel began measuring all eroding shorelines in major developed areas in 1972 and installed concrete sea walls, gabion bags, or riprap to counteract the erosion process. [75]

Sockemtickem slide near Fort Spokane, April 1969. Photo courtesy of National Park Service, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (LARO.FS).

The 1961 Jones report determined the relationship between increasing frequency and magnitude of landslides and increasing severity of reservoir drawdown. It served as a guide for later investigations along the lakeshore. Reclamation initiated annual inspections and photographs of active landslides along Lake Roosevelt in the 1960s. These trips often identified problem areas, such as roads that needed additional marking or berms to prevent traffic in areas with active landslides. A program of selective logging was initiated along the lakeshore to harvest timber within a short distance of the water line. Since the 1970s, Reclamation has tried to avoid creating landslides by keeping the rate of drawdowns less than 1.5 vertical feet per day. [76]

Various experts and officials spent considerable time in the late 1940s and early 1950s studying landslide potential at the landings for the Gifford-Inchelium ferry. This ferry, located 78.5 miles upstream from Grand Coulee Dam, was an important transportation link for Indians living on the reservation. Prior to any landslide assessment, the ferry owner obtained a twenty-year lease from Reclamation in 1941 to operate the ferry and build approach roads over federal land. In 1949, an examination revealed that the approach on the Gifford side (Stevens County) was in a critical slide area. Reclamation believed that the Park Service should help find a new location and that the counties should build and maintain the approach roads between the federal boundaries and the main highway. Fred Jones of USGS proposed possible replacement ferry landings 1.7 miles downstream. Feelings ran high on all sides over the location of the new landings and responsibility for construction of access roads; even the current owner remained undecided about continued operations. LARO Superintendent Greider spent a great deal of time responding to public and agency inquiries about the situation. [77]

The Park Service allowed the ferry to keep operating during the 1950 season while it worked with the operator and other agencies to find a solution. In early 1950, Greider recommended that the ferry be moved to the proposed site 1.7 miles downstream. LARO agreed to build and maintain the sections of the approach roads within the NRA boundaries. The question of who would build the roads between LARO and the main highways, however, was difficult to resolve. LARO maintained it was a county responsibility, but the two counties - and the Park Service Director — believed that Reclamation should do the work since the creation of the reservoir had caused the problem. Having reached an impasse, the Park Service canceled the ferry license at the end of 1950. As expected, county commissioners complained to their congressman about the hardships caused by the closure. Within six weeks, a compromise was reached whereby the existing Inchelium landing was retained and the Gifford landing was moved about one mile downstream to where old State Highway 22 ran into the lake. LARO built an approach road to connect the old and new highways. The ferry service became a public utility operated by the counties involved, under a lease agreement with the Park Service, and the counties assumed all liability. [78]

The seasonal Gifford-Inchelium ferry ceased operations in 1974 because the business was not profitable. As a result, people had to drive an additional one and a half hours to cross the river. The CCT asked Reclamation to operate a free ferry service at the site. As the CCT and BIA solicited Congress for funding, Reclamation provided interim emergency service with a helicopter and radio communications. The Solicitor's Office determined in 1975 that Reclamation was not responsible for the ferry. Instead, the Department of the Interior agreed to fund the ferry, with the BIA taking over operations. The first BIA ferry was a barge and tug loaned by Reclamation, but in 1981 the sixty-passenger Columbia Princess took over the service. In 1994, the CCT took over operation of the ferry from the family that had run it since 1975. [79]

Floating Debris on Lake Roosevelt

In the 1940s and 1950s, floating logs, trees, and other "woody debris" on Lake Roosevelt caused great concern to LARO and Reclamation staff. This debris was largely composed of logs, snags, and slash from logging operations, as well as uprooted trees and brush from lakeshore erosion that extended from Keller Ferry upstream. After the flood of 1948, the banks of Lake Roosevelt were lined with a band of "trash" as much as fifty feet in width. The debris piled up on beaches, while logs and "deadheads" (logs that have sunk at one end) posed a hazard to small boats and float planes. If the debris were not collected, it continued down the Columbia River and passed over a series of dams. Every year, spring high water brought more from Canada and large tributaries, and the floating debris filled the lake in a solid mass from the dam to above Spring Canyon. Debris cleanup was one of the first activities to receive funding at LARO. [80]

Driftwood on beach, Lake Roosevelt, 1956. Photo courtesy of National Park Service, Harpers Ferry Center.

During years that sawmills were booming and towing logs on the lake, stray logs were also a constant management headache. LARO Superintendent Claude Greider began to address the problem of stray logs and "deadheads" by informing logging operators on Lake Roosevelt that Reclamation would collect loose saw logs floating on the lake. In May 1948, Reclamation began removing stray logs from the lake and its shores. The Park Service regional office consulted with the Director about the possibility of LARO granting a permit to a private individual to boom and take possession of logs in consideration for his agreement to clean up the debris, but ownership questions made this impossible. The Park Service did, however, have authority to remove floating logs and debris from the lake as long as the merchantable timber was returned to the legal owners. [81]

The Roosevelt Lake Log Owners Association, formed in the early 1950s, hired a contractor to salvage loose logs. After just a short time, they terminated the Grand Coulee Navigation Company, the first contractor as well as LARO concessionaire, because of unsatisfactory work. They next hired Hal Marchant, a former LARO maintenance employee, to salvage their logs. This work, while improving the floating debris situation somewhat, did not eliminate all the trash from the lake. [82]

LARO received its first funding for debris cleanup in June 1949. The work was delayed because a sudden lowering of the lake level trapped most of the debris high on the shore. But starting in September, and continuing the following spring, LARO hired a contractor to use tugboats to move the material to the dam. Greider optimistically planned to have the lake free of debris by summer 1950, thus removing one of the barriers to increased use of the lake by boaters. In the fall, crews cleaned up the Kettle Falls developed area and boomed off the principal coves in the area to exclude driftwood. Work continued in the spring on other areas of intensive use. [83]

The onset of the Korean War slowed the reservoir cleanup, however. LARO had to temporarily shelve plans to install a trash boom in the Evans area to trap debris, so it did not spend all of the $28,000 that was appropriated for reservoir cleanup during FY1950. Instead, some of the money was transferred out of the cleanup fund to pay for equipment, signs, construction of the Kettle Falls ranger station, and dredging. But, the Washington Office did instruct LARO to insert $10,000 per year under cyclic maintenance in their budget request for debris cleanup. [84]

Greider strongly supported a 1951 proposal to trap debris at the upper end of Lake Roosevelt and on the major tributaries. The debris would be boomed and left on beaches during the winter; the following spring, it would be burned or pushed into the lake to be carried over the Grand Coulee Dam spillway. He felt that simply clearing the bathing beaches was not enough since remaining debris continued to pose navigation hazards. In addition, strong winds could blow debris, damaging docks and other waterfront facilities. He estimated the amount of debris already floating in the lake as enough to fill thousands of railroad flat cars. The 1951 plan would have largely eliminated the existing floating debris from Lake Roosevelt, but the Park Service would have needed to do ongoing trash removal every spring. No part of this plan was accomplished, however. Instead, the clean-up program of the 1950s consisted of simply impounding debris in booms just above the dam and periodically allowing the debris to go over the spillway. By 1960, the volume of debris on Lake Roosevelt was estimated to be three times as large as it had been in 1950. [86]

In 1960, the Columbia Basin Interagency Committee studied the debris cleanup problem along the entire Columbia River and set up a task force to explore solutions. As a result of the study, Reclamation, Park Service, Grant County and Chelan County Public Utility Districts, and the Army Corps of Engineers signed a cooperative agreement on May 26, 1961. Reclamation was to construct, operate, and maintain debris collection and disposal facilities on Lake Roosevelt, while the Park Service was to keep the shoreline free of debris, thus preventing beached debris from refloating. The five-year project was anticipated to cost $150,000 for facilities (primarily the boom at China Bar, twenty-five miles below the border) plus $50,000 per year for operation and maintenance. The costs were allocated as follows: Corps 37.5 percent, Reclamation 37.5 percent, Grant County PUD 16 percent, and Chelan County PUD 9 percent. [87]

The Park Service regional office realized that the work might require additional appropriations for LARO, so it included $25,000 for five years, starting in 1961, to cover the project. During the drawdown, LARO used four D-4 bulldozers equipped with brush blades to pile debris. Crews then gathered scattered pieces by hand and burned the piles. The Park Service also agreed to remove undermined trees along the edge of the high-water line as part of its debris removal program. [88]

LARO Chief Ranger Arthur Holmes in boat among floating debris, 1960. Photo courtesy of National Park Service, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (LARO.HQ.MENG).

The debris cleanup project was quite labor intensive. In 1962, for example, heavy spring runoff resulted in about 70 percent "re-littering" of the beaches that had been cleaned the previous year. Thirty-three miles of beaches were cleared by thirteen men working for three months. The piles of debris had to be burned and piled twice to achieve nearly complete burning. At the end of the year, there were still 200-250 acres of debris outside of booms on Lake Roosevelt. A year later, LARO estimated that 75 percent of the accumulation of debris had been disposed of, and Superintendent Homer Robinson noted that local boaters were very pleased with the results. [89]

Under the 1960s program, Reclamation installed a boom at China Bend on the upper end of the lake to catch and dispose of debris coming down the Columbia River from Canada. This was largely successful, although some debris did escape the boom and other debris floated into the reservoir from tributaries. Contractors hired by the cooperating agencies (not the Park Service) periodically collected and burned the debris from China Bend and the boom just above the dam. Later construction of dams, such as Arrow Dam, upstream in Canada reduced some of the debris coming to Lake Roosevelt from that source. [90]

The Park Service spent almost $122,000 on the lakeshore debris disposal program between 1961 and 1965, excluding capital investments. After that period, though, the work was reduced. LARO spent $14,000 on debris cleanup from 1966-1968. The next year, however, the amount of debris was much higher than usual because of the drawdowns for construction of the third powerhouse. Collection facilities at the mouth of the Kettle River were completed in 1969. A new challenge arose in the early 1970s with the passage of new national air pollution standards, and LARO realized that its annual lakeshore program of piling debris and burning the piles might have to be phased out. [91]

Portable sawmill owned by Hal Marchant, downstream of Spring Canyon, 1957. The sawmill was mounted on a barge and towed to places on Lake Roosevelt where drifting logs had accumulated. Photo courtesy of National Park Service, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (LARO.HQ.MENG).

In 1972, LARO contracted for a study of potential uses for Lake Roosevelt debris. The consultants noted that most of the debris at that time originated in the United States. The boom at China Bend was not working well at all. At full pool, approximately one-third of the six million cubic feet of debris was lodged on the shore and the rest was floating. The Roosevelt Lake Log Owners' Association annually salvaged approximately 2 percent of the material as merchantable timber. The report concluded that 59 percent was suitable for manufacturing fence posts and the rest for wood chips or charcoal production. The report recommended a market survey and economic feasibility analysis. [92]

LARO did not find a market for the debris, however, and it continued to accumulate. In 1976, LARO did a one-week test project collecting, piling, and burning debris. LARO Superintendent William Burgen discounted the air pollution concern, noting that "Smoke rising from the burning debris is usually minimal and a light blue-grey in color. As there are few homes on or near the shores of Lake Roosevelt, sight pollution is not a factor to consider." New LARO Superintendent William Dunmire considered floating debris the single greatest deterrent to public recreation on the waters of Lake Roosevelt. [93]

In 1977, Reclamation agreed to take the lead in funding an "initial clearing program" of the two million or so cubic feet of beached debris along Lake Roosevelt. The agency provided a barge, forced-air burner, and hydraulic crane, along with funding of $800,000 over the next five years for the work. The Park Service provided a barge and crawler tractor, LCM (a 56-foot shallow-draft boat that could haul men and heavy machinery to remote work places), and personnel for piling debris with the tractor along the shallow beach areas. The Park Service also installed and operated a collection boom at Keller Ferry. About one mile of shoreline could be cleared per day. The debris was burned in a barge-mounted burner except for shallow beach areas, where crews set fire to the debris on the beach. Crews formed some debris into artificial reefs for fish habitat, later anchored to the lake bottom with their tops several meters below 1,290 feet. As part of the agreement, the Park Service removed trees with exposed roots on unstable banks, leaving the stumps to retain soil. Once this "initial" clean up was completed, the Park Service was to take over responsibility for future cleanup of shoreline debris along the lake. In 1984, the debris cleanup program achieved some stability when its funding was incorporated into the park base as routine maintenance. [94]

Because of concern about public reaction to the burning of woody debris, considered a potential source of energy, in 1979 LARO established a no-burn policy for Lake Roosevelt debris and began encouraging the public to collect the wood for use in private wood stoves. All large material was stacked on the beaches rather than burned. This program was most effective near the developed areas. It has since been discontinued because of concerns about people driving onto the drawdown lands to collect the wood. Reclamation continued to burn debris at China Bar, Kettle River, and Coulee Dam. [95]

In 1990, the CCT proposed a five-year shoreline improvement project that included removing lake debris from reservation lands. Reclamation agreed to provide funding. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expressed concern, however, about cumulative impacts on fish habitat, particularly from loss of root wads and fallen trees. The solution was to again establish artificial reef complexes to provide mitigation for lost fish habitat. These were clusters of debris cabled together to form bundles approximately 150 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 5 to 15 feet high that were anchored underwater between 1,265 and 1,275 feet. Because of the potential hazards to boaters and swimmers, each ARC was marked by buoys. [96]

Barge with backhoe and extension boom removing beached debris, and small tug pulling sweep boom, 1976. Photo courtesy of National Park Service, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (file D3217 [old 1023] Report for Cleanup of 1967 Flood Debris, box 3 of 3, LARO #95, Cat. #3250, LARO.HQ.PAO).

After the Reclamation/CCT program had been underway a few years, Reclamation agreed to consult annually with LARO for input on site selection and other aspects of the debris removal program. Until then, the park had virtually no input on the 1990s debris clean-up program except at annual meetings at which the LARO Superintendent was asked to comment on all of the tribe's plans for the coming year. Also in 1994, the Reclamation contractor who had been burning the debris and disposing of the ash in the lake learned that state air and water regulations no longer allowed this practice. In response, he began chipping the debris. [97]

LARO is not currently involved in debris clean-up on Lake Roosevelt. The joint Reclamation/CCT program is now on a smaller scale than when it started, consisting mostly of picking up debris at the 1,290-foot line. Reclamation still funds the China Bend and Kettle River debris-collection operations, and the work is done by a private contractor. [98]