In November 2022, Dee Anne Shaw, then Aberdeen City Councillor and Chair of the Public Works Committee, read out the statistics on what the Fry Creek Pumping Station could do once completed.
“(It will) help alleviate chronic flooding for our homeowners in Aberdeen and Hoquiam,” The daily world reported. “With this capacity, you could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in five minutes. 51 bathtubs could be filled in one second. A 200 square meter house – from floor to ceiling – could be filled in one minute.”
Now, two summers later, such words are a reality on Port Industrial Road, where the Fry Creek Pump Station stands. The station is “a critical component of coastal flood protection and stormwater drainage,” according to a press release from the City of Aberdeen. “The pump station will control the flow of Fry Creek, which impacts parts of Aberdeen and Hoquiam during heavy rain and high tides, by closing flood gates and pumping water into Grays Harbor.”
The pumps unveiled Tuesday can pump 130,000 gallons per minute. The project cost about $22 million and was funded with $12.3 million from the Office of Chehalis Basin, $9 million from the Washington State Capital Budget, $500,000 from the City of Aberdeen and $300,000 from Grays Harbor County.
The rushing water from two of the station’s pumps flowed like a raging river. The sound was loud, but not as clear as the excitement on the faces of the people who had worked to make it possible. Aberdeen Mayor Doug Orr and Hoquiam Mayor Ben Winkelman, Aberdeen’s construction crew, several state leaders, representatives from Quigg Bros, Inc. and HDR Engineering, Inc. looked on.
It is the first of three major steps to provide flood protection for Grays Harbor residents.
David Lawrence said a few words about the new pumping station at its opening Tuesday afternoon. Lawrence is an Aberdeen City Councillor, just as he was in 2022 when the council hired HDR Engineering Inc. and Quigg Brothers Inc. to undertake the project.
“I think this is an incredible, just incredible pump,” Lawrence said. “It’s needed to help the cities, (it will) help both cities a lot. I’m just amazed at the amount of water that’s being pumped.”
As Lawrence watched the space below him fill with water, he answered “yes” when asked if he believed the statistics that it takes the pumping station five minutes to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
“That’s a lot of water, and there are only two pumps running,” Lawrence said.
According to Nick Bird, engineer for the City of Aberdeen, only three pumps will be running at a time, not four. The fourth is for “redundancy,” ensuring that the fourth pump can continue to run without interruption if one of the other pumps is not running as intended.
Bird was the keynote speaker at the ceremony and said Tuesday was “just another rainy day” in Grays Harbor County.
“When we broke ground, I think it was 27 degrees in mid-July,” Bird said. “We had a heavy rainstorm that completely soaked us all. It was quite an experience. At least we had some lead time this time. I see a lot of umbrellas out there, I see most people came prepared. For those who don’t have an umbrella, I’ll try to hurry up real quick.”
Ultimately, the aim was to demonstrate the performance of the pumps.
Bird spoke about the flooding history of Grays Harbor, offering a visual tour of times gone by.
“For over 100 years, this area has been flooding periodically,” Bird said. “One of the things I like to do is dig into the Jones Photo Collection. If you haven’t checked out the Jones Photo Collection, it’s one of the really cool places to explore the historic areas of Grays Harbor. Some of my favorite photos, a 1913 photo actually shows a canoe going down Heron Street. Great photo. In 1923, there was a gentleman piggybacking across Heron Street that was flooded. In 1934, someone was fishing on Wishkah Street and I Street. So I don’t know if you’re noticing a pattern, but this area experiences serious flooding periodically — every 10 years.”
Bird used a brief anecdote to describe how the relationship between Aberdeen and Hoquiam has changed since the 1950s.
“There was a flood on Fry Creek,” Bird said. “I don’t know if it was the mayor of Hoquiam at the time, but someone decided to put gravel on Myrtle Street to make sure the floodwater stayed in Aberdeen and didn’t cross the border into Hoquiam. That always makes me smile. I find it pretty funny. But honestly, that sense of balance and camaraderie in the neighborhood, I think the world is very, very different today.”
Bird called the partnership between the cities of Aberdeen and Hoquiam the “key success” associated with the Fry Creek Pump Station project and the Aberdeen-Hoquiam Flood Control Project.
“I don’t think we would be here if this partnership hadn’t come about,” Bird said. “So thank you all for your support throughout this process.”
Bird was in good spirits Tuesday afternoon as they watched the pumping station operate as designed. He described the pumping station’s operation.
“One of the ways we want to operate this facility is that we know that Cherry Street above the Fry Creek area has historically been an area of poor water levels,” Bird said. “One of the things we’re going to focus on is where that threshold is on Cherry Street so we can set up sub-points at the upper end because we also have sensors upstream that measure how much water is up there in the creek. So we’re going to use that to determine when we turn those on and close the gates. Once we get that set, the threat of flooding upstream should no longer be there.”
Does this mean dry basements and drier lawns?
“That’s the plan,” Bird said. “Part of what has to happen is there’s going to be a little bit of trial and error period where we have to say, ‘OK, this sub-point is not low enough, we need to lower it here.’ And then we see the next storm and say, ‘Um, this is still not low enough, let’s go a little bit lower, this sub-point works well.’ Now, if there are basements on Cherry Street — I don’t know if there are a lot of basements in this area — but when the groundwater is as high as ours, basements and groundwater generally don’t mix, so I can’t comment on that. But what I can tell you is that’s what you should expect when it comes to keeping water out of the street, keeping water out of lawns. If a lawn is lower than everything around it, I can’t get the water out. Next year, there will be, for lack of better words, a little trial and error with the collection system. But if we can get it done, I expect significant improvements there.”
Bird was pleased with how many people came to the grand opening despite the rain.
“I’m amazed that so many people came,” Bird said. “I fully expected the weather to have a big impact on the number of people that would come. The turnout was great. We had people from both constituencies. We had people representing both cities. We had representatives from the port (of Grays Harbor) and the county here, we had representatives from the Department of Environmental Conservation here, representatives from the Chehalis Basin office here. The fact that so many partners associated with this project came out and celebrated this milestone is really, really great.”
Winkelman spoke about how important the completion of the dike is to him and other representatives of the region.
“All of the local officials in Aberdeen and Hoquiam think about the levee every day,” Winkelman said. “The benefits will be enormous. I look forward to it every day.”
Winkelman considers the Aberdeen-Hoquiam Flood Control Project to be the highest priority for the region.
“I think as long as we all continue to think about it every day, it will get done,” Winkelman said. “It’s basically a 20- or 15-year project… The (Fry Creek) pump station is a perfect example of the two cities working together to get it done for the benefit of both cities. I think every elected official thinks about it every day. Whether it’s 100 degrees outside and sunny, if it hasn’t rained in three weeks, we still think about the flooding. I literally can’t think of a day that I haven’t thought about it.”
Orr, like everyone else present on Tuesday afternoon, was in a good mood.
“I think this is a great thing,” Orr said. “It’s about time, this is something we’ve needed for a long time. I think it’s going to be great. The levee, if we get it, will probably be the greatest thing that could happen to this little community – Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Cosi. I think it’s just going to change everything. This is a really wonderful first step in that direction.”
Among the state representatives was Rep. Steve Tharinger. Tharinger, who also chairs the House Budget Committee, said he was impressed by the coordinated work among local, county and state officials.
“This project is a great example of what is possible when the state, county and cities work together to address the increased flood risk caused by climate change,” Tharinger said.
Contact reporter Matthew N. Wells at [email protected].
Matthew N. Wells / The Daily World Nick Bird, Aberdeen City Engineer, was the keynote speaker at the grand opening of the Fry Creek Pump Station Tuesday afternoon. Bird spoke about the history of flooding throughout Grays Harbor County.
Jones Photo Historical Collection One of the main points of the speech by Nick Bird, engineer for the city of Aberdeen, was the large role that flooding has played in the history of Grays Harbor County. He mentioned this 1913 photograph showing two men in a canoe rowing down Heron Street.
