Channel dig gets underway

Removal of rocks and debris from the flood control channel for the S. Fork of the Palouse River started Tuesday morning. City Administrator Michael Rizzitiello told the city council Monday night that the city had finally received all the permits required to go into the channel and remove the material.

Mayor Todd Vanek told the council the city will be required to submit a billing to the state Department of Transportation to receive payments for the cost of the excavation project. The state DOT has approved up to $20,000 in payments to cover the cost of the rock removal from the channel. Estimated amount of debris in the S. Fork channel is 695 tons of rock. Rain in recent weeks led to growth of a new crop of grass on some soil which had collected on top of the rocks.

The rocks landed in the channel when runoff washed through a DOT construction site along the Palouse Highway grade last winter. The debris entered the channel from the large street drain culvert which runs under Mill and Main streets from the Highway 272 drain entry near the back of the United Methodist Church.

One hitch in the city's plan to remove the rock was a snag in the permit process to take the rock from the channel in Colfax and haul it to the Glenwood area where the city plans to install three erosion control rock barbs in the North Fork of the Palouse River.

Council members on Monday night questioned whether the lack of a permit for building the N. Fork barbs could lead to depositing the channel rock at a temporary site and then loading it again for hauling to the N. Fork project.