Residents of the northwest Kalifornsky Beach neighborhood gathered Thursday night at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex to discuss flooding in the area, and possible solutions. The meeting was hosted by Dave Yragui, the K-Beach resident facing legal action from the Kenai Peninsula Borough for an unpermitted canal he dug to move water in the neighborhood.
The low-lying area has high ground water and has been dealing with flooding issues for over a decade. Since spring breakup this year, when a large volume of snowmelt overflowed the neighborhood, residents have been speaking out about damage to their properties and septic systems. The borough lowered the water level in parts of the neighborhood this summer, and is hiring a consultant to study the effectiveness of its efforts.
On Thursday, in front of about 40 attendees, Dave Yragui talked about his decade-long history of experiencing flooding in the area, and digging ditches. He distributed a list of 14 “action items” for property owners to take, and showed off self-devised maps enumerating the extent of the flooding issue.
“At the end of the day, what I want is I want the borough to step up, and if they’re not going to do anything, then just get out of the way,” he said. “Because there’s plenty of people that have equipment, and the ability to take care of the water problem in pretty short fashion.”
Yragui told his neighbors the only solution to the problem is drainage.
The borough disagrees with some of Yragui’s solutions. It filed an injunction against him in July, telling him to stop action on his mile-and-a-half long canal dug on borough property. In the court filing, the borough suggests the ditch is making flooding worse for Yragui’s neighbors, and could release up to 2 million gallons of water onto other properties.
On Thursday, over the more than three-hour meeting, Yragui critiqued the borough’s response to the flooding, both the nature of its ditch work and speed of reaction. He made multiple calls for residents to take things into their own hands, and encouraged them to appeal their property tax valuations in light of the flooding, equating the borough to his employee.
“And because you’re not doing your job, and you’re my employee, you work for me, if you’re not doing your job, I ain’t paying ya,” he said. “I’m not giving you money to not work. So bottom line is, appeal your taxes. Don’t pay for an employee that doesn’t do their job, period.”
Borough Mayor Peter Micciche, who has been in office since February, arrived mid-meeting with Kalifornsky Assembly member Brent Hibbert and gave the borough’s perspective.
“I can tell you, the borough is done doing nothing. We’re gonna do what we can do to solve high ground water and high surface water issues,” he said. “I’ve been here six months. You guys have been staring at this for a really long time.”
Micciche emphasized that as a second-class borough, KPB has limited authority when it comes to flooding, and only has powers related to the flow of water through roadside ditches. However, he said, the borough has drained tens of millions of gallons from parts of the neighborhood, and allotted $175,000 last week to hire an independent hydrologist from Anchorage-based HDL Engineering Consultants to study the area. He emphasized residents need to work with the borough.
As Micciche was leaving, meeting attendees made calls for the borough to declare an emergency and seek relief money. To be eligible for assistance, there must be an estimated $1.3 million in damages to public facilities like roads and bridges.
“There’s a lot of people that are at the threshold right now that are losing their homes,” Yragui said. “It may not be an emergency for you, but it’s an emergency for them, and as a community, we can take action. Come hell or high water.”
But Micciche explained the current situation has cost the borough less than half of that threshold amount.
“It is an emergency for me. That doesn’t mean I can skirt federal law in declaring an emergency,” Micciche responded. “We still have to reach that threshold…There are rules…They’re not gonna give you the money if you don’t meet the threshold.”
Back in 2013, the K-Beach area experienced a similar high water event. During that episode, the borough did declare an emergency and qualify for that relief, but Micciche said that was related to flooding across the entire peninsula, including extensive damage in Seward, Bear Creek and on the west side of Cook Inlet, not just the K-Beach area.
Residents continued to share their issues with property flooding. Karl Straume and his wife created a Facebook page for residents to publicize their experiences.
“Feel free to comment, share your testimonies, whatever you want on Facebook,” Straume said. “Because my wife and I, along with many other people, have had issues with their water, with their septic, with their flooding.”
Jim Munter is an Anchorage hydrologist who has been working with Yragui for more than a decade, and who owns property in the area. In the latter half of the meeting, he offered his own hydrological solutions and said he would work with residents to help them understand the flooding issue.
Yragui continued to emphasize his lack of faith in the borough to solve the issue. But Micciche said he had positive conversations with attendees after the meeting about the borough’s actions, and said the borough’s hydrological study will be expedited to address the ongoing issues.
On Friday, the borough filed a request in order to push through their injunction related to the canal. Yragui, for his part, said he sees the lawsuit as an opening to bring the flooding issue to light.
