Chehalis River sunk boat

The following picture happened above the South Montesano boat launch and before the lower Pump house.

It must have happened Saturday afternoon.....person must have been running up the river, on the West side. There is a high bank, on the West side of the river, this bank has been washing away for many years BUT the past 5 lots of the bank and buildings have washed away.

The well casing used to be approximately 50 feet from the edge of the river.....at present time the well casing is 10-15 from the edge of the bank.




I hope the person or persons are ok, did hear that someone was taken to the hospital.

I saw the boat, up close........could have been worse. This area is bad, not just because of the well casing but because of a couple of gravel bars. Have seen many boats struck on the bars.....one big inboard had to wait for the tide.....4 hour wait.

NO rain, Chehalis is very low.....what looks like deep water, is not!!!

Be safe.......

Damn...that does not look comfy.

Fish on...

Todd

I know of one PP member who lives down there and runs a similar boat.
I hope it ain't him and he was surfing instead.

Running at S. Monte can be pretty dangerous. When the water isn't moving you can't see all kinds of dead heads and other debris. Put a little glare in your eyes and wind chop on it and it is easy to hit something. Pretty much anyone who has fished down there much has run over something, or gotten stuck. I have seen folks who fish there 4x a week run into a dead head.

LOL @WX1. If it was a Saturday in the fall you can guess that I was probably at a soccer game. Actually I was picking cranberries, but normally would be at a soccer game.

The guy in the bow got a really nasty gash on his leg as he went over, he should have came to pick cranberries too, but we thought we had a full crew.

It's very deceptive. I have been up and down the river for 25 years. Last week my sled hit a hidden (to me) sand bar just inches under the water. The boat stopped and I didn't. When I got up from laying on the anchor bracket I still had the portable tiller handle in my hand. Shattered my sunglasses, cut my head, my nose, shoulder and a puncture wound to my leg. I felt like I was hit by Kam C.

I want to thank the gentleman that came over to me in his sled to see if I was still alive and offer assistance. The good news was that Drifter WA. was around to see it and shake his head.

HILL STREET BLUES " Be careful out there"

Man, I guess I won't run WFO up there. 20 staples in the leg from the guy in the bow. Could've been a lot worse. Ugly reminder that stuff can happen.

Ouch....Good luck,

SZ

It's downright creepy how much natural and man-made stuff there is on the bottom (and sometimes top!) Of that river. The changing tides deposit old stuff in new places all the time. You can see it all at low tide, but it doesn't take long for the incoming tide to bury a lot of nasty stuff a couple inches under the surface, and the growing river makes it hard to pinpoint where obvious stuff you saw earlier will be lurking.

I bob around in the area in question in a pontoon boat quite a bit this time of year. I've bumped into and slid over all kinds of stuff with my feet. So far, nothing too life-threatening, but I've gotten pretty spooked several times. It's easy to let the river's big, slow character lull you to sleep and lose sight of just how dangerous it can be, but anyone who fishes it a lot eventually learns to respect it, most often after a good scare, and in a few unfortunate cases like this one, after a serious accident. Glad to know everyone's alive, and equally glad I'm not nursing a 20-staple leg laceration. As SZ said, "Ouch."

Monday.....boat was still there, this a.m., glad to hear that all are ok.

20+ staples beats the xhit out of "pushing roses".

I guess a friends' son helped to get them to medical aid. Well done!

Indeed! Had help not been swift and effective, we might well be talking about a death from bleeding instead of a scary situation.

The leg wound was first flushed with Chehalis River water.

The first step in any good wound cleansing.

Nothing to see here.
Move along.
D.O.E. runs a tight ship.

Tuesday, October 6........boat still there. My question "is there a plan" to move the boat before the rains hit?????

It is a conversation situation....the 4 or 5 guide boats working the area, gives them something to talk about.

Most of the biters much be stopped by the marine fishery or the QIN nets, not many fish in my part of the river.

Lot of Chinooks caught & released in the bay on Sunday. Just in time for the 5,000 nets in the river to catch their quota. What a circus trying to get to the Cosi boat launch around all the nets. I know there was discussion on this board about quota etc.. But you hook and release a Chinook only to see them ( I believe) go right into the nets. WTF ????

As of noon Friday, when the QIN pull their nets, there will have been nets corking off the entire basin for a total of 216 out of 288 hours since they put in on the 28th. 72 hours for fish passage over a 12-day period doesn't make it appear that our co-managers are intent on sharing the conservation burden. Just sayin'....

It sucks to be at the bottom of the totem pole of fisheries management, but it is what it is.

DOE has been contacted several times about decommissioning that well. Now that people are hurt it should make it more of a priority. Sucks that that's what it takes.

Legal question, about that well casing.....

Who, if anyone, is legally responsible???? I know that the present land owners, have just purchased the property from a bank.....just wondering!!!

DOE has been contacted???? Which office, this is the kind of thing "I" want to follow up on.......fishing is slow, might as well, stir the Public funded Office of DOE.

DOE = Department of Ecology???????

I would guess that the deed probably has ownership to MHHW or some other river edge description, the owners would likely argue that well casing is on state property and didn't come with the property.

That will be an expensive decommissioning since the work will be done from a barge. I'm not sure if DOE has the purchasing capacity or expertise to put out a contract for that, but they may need to push a letter to WDFW or COE (navigable channel?) demanding removal.

GH County Commissioners have already been contacted and I heard that they were pushing from their end.

I don't know much about underwater demolition, but could a diver go down and cut it off just above the bottom rather than trying to pull the whole pipe....????

That would seem like a quick, easy solution.

Once the state gets involved, figure on it taking a long time to get done and it being an expensive process.
SF

They way I see it they have a few options of getting it done.

1. Quick and dirty - Get on a boat with a diver, licensed driller and trash pump. Flush the sediment out of the top of the casing to the level of the river bottom and cut it off. This would be cheap and very little time involved. This would be highly unlikely DOE would be OK with doing this. But if it's hurting people might be a possibility? Again very doubtful this would be acceptable.

2. The right way but far more expensive - bring a barge with a pump truck out there also with a diver. Cruise out there at high tide, wait for low tide. Flush the sediment out of the well, perforate the well and fill with bentonite grout then cut off at the bottom of the river.

………..or just hook a chain around it and then to a D-8 Cat up on the bank and start pulling. The thing's bound to pop loose.

[Bleeeeep!], it's so simple, it's impossible.

I like the "chain and D-8 bit".....how deep can it be??????? Hell, when it was put in......the drilling company shouldn't have had to go that far down to find good water. Its bottom land and not that far from the Chehalis river.

I did call DOE, Friday 10/9/15....was sent to a person who is in charge of "these kind of things"......no answer on phone, went to voice mail......got no call back after a few hours.....so I got his email address, fired off an email, explained problem even sent the picture of the jet boat, with the pipe sticking thru the boat....Got no answer by 5 p.m. Friday...so next week I'll continue to see if I can get a answer from a "tax payer funded" agency......

Perhaps the person was in the field/out of the office that day??

Just say'n.

Regardless, keep at it.

Update....Monday, 10-12-15

Got a return call from contact person at DOE.....they were aware of the problem, Rep. Brian Blake had contacted them, early last week.

At this time, DOE is working with DNR, so it looks like DNR is going to take the "lead" on getting this done.

I fish it this area, LOTS, so I'll know if anything is happening.

The well casing has been cut off, driver went down to do the job. The boat was raised and cabled to the side of the divers barge. The well casing, about 10 feet, was also placed on the barge. The boat was going to be taken to the South Montesano boat launch and then to where I didn't ask.

Enjoy the area......be safe out there....

Thanks for the update. That's good news for those of you who fish that area.

Glad they were able to remove the hazard. Thanks for the image showing how far away this was from the bank.

Have them head up in the Satsop and get that one too.

Hi, I'm with DNR, and we helped remove the boat and well casing on the Chehalis. Could you give me more info about the one on the Satsop? Thanks.

Good stuff!

Matt,
If I remember right it's about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile up river, in a flat, near a pump/gauging station.