Range Flooding Status

As many members, and several police departments, have pointed out CRGC's ranges have been under water a lot more this year than at any time in the past.  The following is a description and status of the situation.

This is a long and still evolving story.  The ranges have been flooded because our neighbor to the west raised the level of a dam across the creek by about 7 feet.  This has, since the rains started in November, raised the ground water level to the point where our ranges will not drain.  It took us several weeks to figure out the problem, as no one knew about the dam, and we don’t ordinarily go trespassing on other people’s property.  We wrote a letter on 22 January 2007 to Rod Beals, the property owner, requesting that he abate the problem.  Copies of our letter, and his response, are attached to this e-mail.  Dennis Kenagy and Jim Burdett met with Russell Yates, the renter of Mr Beals property, on Saturday, 3 February 2007, with no results.

Dennis Kenagy went to Clackamas County on Monday, 5 February 2007, and found out that neither Mr Beals or Mr Yates had obtained a permit to dam the creek.  We filed a complaint with Clackamas County that day.  It does not appear that the County is likely to take any action soon.  Craig Curtright, a new club member who is also an attorney, volunteered to help work the issue.  On Monday, 19 February 2007, he met with the County’s soils scientist, Jim Fisher, who said that the County could not help us, and suggested that we speak with Sabrina White in the Oregon Department of State Lands.  Craig also communicated with Ed McGlone, a Clackamas County trial attorney, to determine what could be done, and with whom we should speak.  Mr McGlone did some initial research, and wrote that he thought it was a code compliance issue, and he referred Craig to Chris Storey, who is the Assistant County Counsel for Clackamas County Water and Environmental Services.  (It appears that Chris Storey is in some way related to CRGC member Stephen Storey, and Chris Storey has shot at CRGC several times.)  We have not had a formal response from Chris Storey yet.

Craig followed through with the State of Oregon, and spoke with Joy Freibaum.  She referred him to Jevra Brown, of the Department of State Lands, who is responsible for the Clackamas County area, and who promptly met with Craig and Dennis Kenagy at the club Tuesday evening, 20 February 2007, to look at the problem and start to consider what might be done.  Ms Brown has referred the problem to Sabrina White, who apparently has enforcement authority.  We have a meeting with Sabrina White at the club Friday afternoon, 23 February 2007, to have her look at the problem.  Craig, in the mean time, has supplied pictures of the water and the dam to a variety of people in Clackamas County and the State of Oregon.

While we are working on getting relief for the flooding problem, we have also been considering what might be done to either remove the water or prevent the flooding.  (The problem, of course, is that the ranges sit in the flood plain of the Molalla River, and some flooding will naturally occur on occasion, which complicates the issue.)  Dan Stevens and LeRoy Leiss looked at the possibility of draining the range to the Molalla River, but there is not enough slope available for that to work.  We have also looked at putting in a sump, drain, and pump, but the problem of where to drain the water remains, and there is also the question of whether or not we can get a pump with enough capacity that will realistically do any good.  We would need, at a minimum, a 4 inch hose to make any headway.  We have also looked at raising the height of the range by about a foot, which would substantially relieve most of the current problem, but that would also entail raising the level of the concrete wall between the ranges, and perhaps the 50 yard shooting positions as well.  The cost of raising the range would be about $25,000, and we are unwilling to spend that kind of money until the governmental agencies have had a chance to work, as the only way we can recover the expense will be to file suit with Mssrs Beals and Yates.