Rainbow residents optimistic berm will be built

Flash flood victims last week dug out more debris from 2-plus inches of rain that struck their Mount Charleston homes and roadways, knowing that they could be tested again.

The Rainbow Canyon residents’ next big test could come today and Tuesday, when more rain is forecast, or any time over the monsoon season that has one month to go.

And yet some of them are voicing optimism that the state and Clark County will broker a deal leading to a flood diversion project being built on nearby U.S. Forest Service land, thereby preventing the level of destruction that the flooding delivered two weeks ago.

County Commissioner Larry Brown, whose district includes Mount Charleston, said the county and governor’s office have been in contact nearly every day about the issue. He said he will be talking with state officials again either today or Tuesday, possibly both days.

If a deal is reached, the Army Corps of Engineers will be allowed to build a berm. If that had happened after the original request was made in June, the corps could have completed construction before the latest flooding occurred.

This was the second flood to hit the mountain in less than a year. The first one came on Labor Day weekend in 2013, after the Carpenter 1 Fire burned nearly 28,000 acres in and around Mount Charleston. The fire burned areas above Rainbow, destroying vegetation that had long shielded residents by absorbing rainfall. The U.S. Forest Service has estimated it will take at least five to seven years for vegetation to grow back on the mountain.

While the initial shock of the July 28 flash flood has subsided, disappointment lingers that county officials didn’t accept the terms of a proposal from the corps. The project required the county to assume liability and ownership of the temporary earthen berm, along with maintaining and repairing it, and removing the structure when it’s no longer necessary. County officials have said the sticking point was assuming ownership and liability.

“This flood did not have to happen,” said Becky Grismanauskas, a Rainbow resident.

She made that statement because corps officials were prepared to start building the project in early June and projected a 30-day time frame to complete it. On June 2, the county notified the corps it was unable to meet the terms of the agreement proposal received in May, while leaving the door open to further negotiations.

The flood left the community with more than $2 million in damage to public infrastructure and private homes, according to the county’s assessment.

Gov. Brian Sandoval said on an Aug. 1 tour of the area that the state could possibly assume the liability, but it’s unclear if that will happen. The county has been willing to maintain and repair the berm. The governor’s office didn’t give any indication last week on how much, if any, progress is being made.

“Everybody’s just waiting,” Grismanauskas said Thursday. “We’re still waiting. I still believe the state’s going to do it.”

Brown said the county is willing to invest in the project, noting that the cost of maintaining the berm is at least $1 million.

There might be other flood control efforts, too. Brown said he has heard good ideas from residents about potential flood control projects — such as channels — the county could build within the subdivision off of federal land.

Brown stressed the dialogue with the governor’s office has been open.

“We at the end of the day may agree to disagree, but the communication has been excellent,” Brown said.

Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak said the county won’t accept the liability for the project.

“It’s not our facility,” Sisolak said. “It’s not on our land, and we’re not building it.”

Sisolak said that if the berm were to break, the county would be responsible for whatever damage it caused.

“The water diverting is going to go somewhere,” he said. “That’s potential damage wherever we divert it to as well.”

ONLY AVAILABLE LOCATION

County officials also have pointed out that the berm would be on Forest Service land, which surrounds Rainbow’s private homes and county-maintained roads.

The corps says the potential project’s location on Forest Service land doesn’t remove the expectations for local or state agency sponsors that benefit from a corps project.

“The only reason it’s on Forest Service land is because there’s nowhere to put it on private land,” said Anne Hutton, chief of the corps’ Emergency Management Office based in Los Angeles District, which includes Mount Charleston.

The corps started visiting the site and exploring if it could help after receiving a request for assistance from the state in late February.

Often, local and state agencies sponsoring projects are responsible for providing the land, said Rick Leifield, chief of the corps’ engineering division for the district.

“It’s just unusual in this case it works out the best place to put the project is on the land owned by the Forest Service,” he said.

The berm’s preliminary design length started out at 1,200 feet, which was extended in May to 1,700 feet as the plans continued. The current plan is about 1,950 feet.

Leifield said any agreement with a local agency almost always involves negotiation.

“Each agency has the same intention — they want to do the right thing for the citizens out there,” he said.

CONCERNS REMAIN

On Thursday, contractors and cleanup crews were making repairs to homes throughout the neighborhood.

Grismanauskas and her husband, Duffy, plan to dig channels to keep runoff away from their property. They have concerns that future storms will jeopardize the structural safety of a neighbor’s house.

“Mother Nature’s a bitch,” Duffy Grismanauskas said. “But Father Time can be a bastard.”

In other words, if nothing is done, conditions for the mountain community only will worsen if rains hit again without any flood control, he said.

Sandoval expressed similar concerns about future floods when he visited the area.

The berm, in the eyes of residents, is the best chance of preserving their way of life on the mountain without facing fierce flooding from seasonal rains.

“There’s no guarantee it’s going to work, but the Army Corps of Engineers aren’t fools,” Duffy Grismanauskas said.

For now, residents are trying to be optimistic, and hoping that after the second flood, officials will wade through the legal hoops and get the job done.

“You have to dot the i’s and cross the t’s,” he said.

But, he added, “Every day that goes by is another day of potential threat.”

LOWER KYLE CANYON

The damaging rainfall affected Lower Kyle Canyon as well.

“I know we don’t have million-dollar homes here, but all of our lives are tied up here,” said Roxanne Carnevale, who lives along Barr Road about 16 miles east of Mount Charleston off state Route 157.

Flowing water has eroded the area near Carnevale’s property. Residents say a damaged gravel road gets scant attention from county public works crews.

The gravel road, created by a subdivision action, isn’t the county’s responsibility to pave and maintain, county officials said.

County standards don’t allow the county to build unpaved gravel roads. The county’s responsibility would only come if a road were built to county standards.

If the road is washed out due to flooding, however, the county will repair it to ensure access for emergency vehicles, county Public Works Director Denis Cederburg said.

After last year’s flood, a handful of residents, including Carnevale, pitched in about $100 apiece so a contractor would improve the damaged road, she said.

She said the Lower Kyle Canyon area needs adequate flood control, too, and that what happens on Mount Charleston also affects the communities below it.

“We’re people, too,” Carnevale said. “We’re not as rich as those guys up there.”

As she spoke, Stu Cooke, a neighbor, used his backhoe to straighten gravel on the road near her house. Cooke said he didn’t mind doing the work, noting the outcome if the county did it instead.

“That would just mean more taxes, wouldn’t it?” Cooke said.

Contact Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2904. Find him on Twitter: @BenBotkin1.