The Port Westward Fight Runs Through A Working Levee And Drainage System

The joint permit application says the facility site is within the Beaver Drainage District and that the district is entirely contained within a series of levees.

The same application says surface and subsurface hydrology at the site has already been altered by ditching, drainage, levees, roads, railroads, and industrial facilities.

The permit application says multiple drainage ditches and two low-quality wetlands cover about 109.9 acres of the 122.5-acre impact site.

The acreage figures in the application place wet ground and drainage works across most of the proposed impact area.

DEQ's 401 certification says treated runoff would move through Waterway F and McLean Slough to the Beaver Drainage Improvement Company's pumping station, then over the levee in winter and into irrigation use in spring and summer.

DEQ's order places project water management inside the district's existing drainage and irrigation routing.

In its public comment letter, Beaver Drainage Improvement Company says it provides irrigation water to more than 2,700 acres and objects that the mitigation plan would fill about 26,800 linear feet of existing drainage ditches.

The district says those changes could shift costs onto other landowners, interfere with drainage and irrigation flows, and undermine maintenance of the levee-and-ditch system.

DEQ's hearing-officer report says commenters raised flood, levee, and seismic concerns during the 401 review. DEQ responded that it does not issue decisions about levee engineering or seismic stability and that floodplain development permits are handled locally.

The hearing-officer report leaves water quality, levee engineering, and local floodplain review in separate agency lanes.