Have you ever noticed that any organization whether it be government or private sector they have to have a meeting to have a meeting. I saw this start happening when I left the work world in the 90’s. We often would have meetings and then talk about who needed to have a smaller meeting. The explosion of this really took off in the late 90’s.

When we first moved to Grays River there was a meeting at the local grange hall. It was a meeting about the flooding in the Grays River valley and what to do about it.

I recall every ecology related group in attendance. The government groups running the meeting,  were asking what needed to be done, to stop or curb the flooding. Families that had been in the valley for generations,  knew what needed to be done to stop major flooding.

The lower portion of the Grays river emptied into the Columbia River. When the tide was in (or high) the river slowed and areas of the valley would flood. This would water fields. When the tide went out it would create a suction and pull all of the water out or off the land.

Then after the study the community would be told what could and could not be done.

This struck me as a tactic to wear down the community.

The community had been trying to get some relief from the flooding by having the mouth of the Grays river dredged. Dredging had been done before and It worked, it worked well.

What do you think came out of that meeting? You are right another meeting. But, there is always a but, The alphabet bunch had to have a study. A study to see the impact of the environment that dredging would cause. The study was an official $250,000 study. Then they would get back with the community and let them know. That was back in 1997. Do you think the mouth of the Grays River has been dredged yet?