On a quiet afternoon in October, the Mendenhall River swirled lazily in an eddy at the corner of Ann Wilkinson Lind’s property on Marion Way.
But during this summer’s record-breaking glacial outburst flood, the river sent waves crashing onto Lind’s property.
Their house was spared, but the force of the water knocked down the chain-link fence, swept away garden boxes and tool sheds and tore up their beloved backyard, which the family has dubbed the “Lind oasis.” Lind’s husband Jeff, who had long struggled with a weak heart, was devastated by the damage.
“He was very, very stressed out about his yard,” she said. “That was, I think, sort of the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Jeff Lind passed away less than a week after the flood. In his memory, friends and former coworkers from Greens Creek Mine came together to protect the yard from future floods. They raised the edge of the lot with four feet of packed gravel and built a sturdy wall of boulders around the perimeter.
“We bite the bullet. It’s part of living on the river,” Ann Lind said. “But now, these floods are affecting so many other people.”
This year, floodwaters stretched far beyond the riverbanks and damaged nearly 300 houses in the Mendenhall Valley. To keep the people dry next year, the City and Borough of Juneau has made plans to install a wall of flood barriers to make a temporary levee along Mendenhall River, which begins on Lind’s property and stretches down along Killewich Drive and Meander Way.
The plan won’t work without the cooperation of more than 75 riverfront property owners. And some of them are feeling conflicted, balancing a pressure to protect their neighbors with their fears that the city’s plan is too risky, invasive and expensive.
“It’s put us, I would say, all riverfront property owners, in a very difficult position. I don’t want to be the one person that says no. I don’t want to be the hole in the wall,” said Sean Smack, a homeowner on Meander Way. “If we fight this plan, will we now be the bad guys in the community?”
Smack doesn’t doubt the barriers could work well against Juneau’s outburst floods, but he worries that the city’s plan will cost too much.
A band-aid solution
The barriers, made by a company called HESCO, are basically massive heavy-duty sandbags in metal baskets. They’re used for flood fighting across the nation, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave them to Juneau for free.
The proposed levee is only meant to be temporary — a way to buy some time for a more permanent flood prevention plan. But to build it, the city says they would have to connect a wall of HESCO sandbags across yards that are uneven, on soil that is unstable, along a riverbank that zigs and zags. And that will require a lot of prep work on private property, and a lot of money — possibly up to $10 million when all work is done.
It’s not yet clear how that cost will be shared, but it is almost certain that property owners like Smack will be asked to contribute some funding. While he understands the desire to fight flooding in the short term, he worries all the work for the temporary levee might be a waste.
“Right now, we’re just looking at spending up to $10 million as a city on a temporary levy that may or may not work, but then, once the long term plans done, all of that work is useless,” Smack said. “Are we throwing a bunch of good money at a short-term plan?”
Many riverfront property owners have already made hefty personal investments to fortify their properties. Lind, for instance, has spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on her lot. She thinks that work will be enough to protect her for now, but with the HESCO barrier proposal, she feels she’s being asked to pay for her neighbor’s protection, too.
“I don’t know how much those barriers are going to cost, or what they’re going to expect us to pay,” Lind said. “But for us to pay for the Valley is not right. It should be shared.”
The city has proposed cost-sharing options, like the creation of a local improvement district. If approved, a designated group of flood-affected homeowners would split up the cost of the project. Though a similar improvement district proposal for erosion prevention work on Meander Way failed back in 2018, when homeowners could not come to an agreement.
Lind is more concerned with finding a permanent solution, like draining would-be flood waters from Suicide Basin, or building a levee around Mendenhall Lake to divert water before it flows downstream into the river.
“Fix the problem. Fix the point of the problem,” Lind said. “We should not put Band-Aids all the way up and down the river.”
The cost of doing nothing
City Manager Katie Koester says the city fully intends to pursue a permanent fix, and has discussed many options with experts at the Army Corps. But they’ve pursued the HESCO plan at the Corp’s suggestion, and Koester insists that building something permanent will require more federal funding, and a lot more research to secure that funding.
In an interview, Koester acknowledged that the plan to install flood barriers is incomplete and imperfect. She emphasized that it is only intended to be a stopgap before the next flood comes, but she feels it is the best bet to protect life and property between now and next summer.
“If the residents don’t want the project, it’s going to be hard for the project to proceed, and you know, I come back to the cost of doing nothing,” Koester said.
Deb Johnston, who also lives on Meander Way, worries that the pushback to this plan might ultimately lead to inaction. She supports the HESCO proposal, and though she’s one of the many Valley homeowners that’s not on the riverfront, she’s willing to share costs.
No matter what flood fighting plan prevails, Johnston feels time is of the essence.
“When I walk in this neighborhood, there are still houses that are unoccupied, that have demolition debris on their lawns,” Johnston said. “I don’t see how any of us can possibly wait three to five to six years for a permanent solution without this becoming, you know, a derelict neighborhood.”
Representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will share more details about their HESCO project planning at Monday’s Juneau Assembly Committee of the Whole meeting. The city will roll out more details on the project’s budget and cost sharing at the next regular Assembly meeting on Nov. 16.
