State geologists predicted the landslide that crushed homes and severed U.S. 30 west of Clatskanie, but the state shelved the information partly because of concerns it would interfere with land development.The prediction was spelled out in the form of landslide hazard maps that state geologists drew up for all of western Oregon after landslides killed five people in 1996. The maps labeled most of the area involved in last month's U.S. 30 slide as posing "very high" or "extreme" landslide hazard -- the highest possible categories of risk.
They showed the danger extending from Oregon State University clear-cuts where the destructive chain of events began, downhill to an old earthen railroad crossing that allowed mud and debris to collect for more than a week, forming a lake. The debris finally broke loose Dec. 11, releasing a muddy torrent into homes that sat in the danger zone
But people living in those homes never knew the maps existed -- even though the state spent nearly $250,000 developing them to help protect life and property.
State foresters who reviewed logging more than a mile above the homes knew about the maps but did not refer to them, they said.
And other homeowners in a state full of risky terrain -- Portland's West Hills, the Coast Range, parts of southwestern Oregon and more -- don't know whether they face the same risk as those west of Clatskanie.
That's because a little-known state board quietly withdrew the maps from official use in 2003 after city and county officials complained that they labeled too much area as hazardous and might restrict development and hurt property values, according to state documents and interviews with people involved. The state law that called for the maps included mandates that made local officials see it all as a regulatory headache.
The state never supplied money to refine the maps -- which cover 19 western Oregon counties -- the way cities and counties wanted.
The result is that the maps showing areas at highest risk of landslides remain unknown to the people in the most danger.
"I bought it a year and a half ago," Mike Roubal said of his family's home west of Clatskanie, buried almost to its eaves by the Dec. 11 landslide. He evacuated shortly before the mud hit but lost several uninsured vehicles, including a classic 1955 Chevy, and is now struggling with paperwork to seek state and federal assistance. "I wouldn't have bought it if I would have known there was this kind of risk."
More:
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/120070952595600.xml&coll=7---------------
This in a fairly progressive state with a Democratic governor. Not that this sort of deception hasn't been going on
for years.
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