Rockslide Moves River, Crews Must Now Fight Flow

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Story Published: Oct 14, 2009 at 5:29 PM PDT

By Peter Bukowski

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NEAR NACHES -- A mountain-side collapses, thousands of pounds of rocks and earth, enough force to knock a river off course.

Since landslides don't discriminate, the water went wherever it could , flooding roads, houses and anything in it's way.

"Nature always wins. No matter how much we think we control our environment, our environment controls us and water is a powerful force," says Joye Redfield Wilder with the Department of Ecology.

So for crews, it's more about adapting to the changes here, not changing things back.

Paul Gonseth, the project engineer, explains, "We're dealing with trying to build a road in a active river so that's a delicate situation."

It's also a time sensitive situation. The longer water flows, the more devastating it could be.

"The river's going to carve out it's own channel. We've got to be respectful of that and figure it out," Redfield-Wilder says.

Gonseth understands he can't just damn the river. He can only divert it so it can be reconnected.

"We're not actually trying to stop the flow, we're trying to make it go through the roadway."

This slide means permanent change has come to this stretch of State Route 410. At least until mother nature gets restless once again.

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