Back in November 2022, Dee Anne Shaw, at that point an Aberdeen City Councilor and the Public Works Committee chair, read off the stats about what the Fry Creek Pump Station could do once it was built.

“(It will) help alleviate chronic flooding for our homeowners in both Aberdeen and Hoquiam,” The Daily World reported. “This capacity would fill an Olympic pool in five minutes. It could fill 51 bathtubs in one second. It would fill a 2,100 square-foot home — floor to ceiling — in a minute.”

Now, two summers later, such words are a reality along Port Industrial Road, where the Fry Creek Pump Station sits. The station is “a critical component of coastal flood protection and storm drainage,” according to a city of Aberdeen news release. “The pump station will control the flow of Fry Creek, which affects portions of both Aberdeen and Hoquiam during heavy rain and high tides, by closing tide gates and pumping water out to Grays Harbor.”

The pumps showcased on Tuesday can move 130,000 gallons per-minute. The project cost approximately $22 million and was paid for with $12.3 million from the Office of Chehalis Basin, $9 million from the Washington State Capital Budget, $500,000 from the city of Aberdeen and $300,000 from Grays Harbor County.

The rushing water from two of the pumps at the station ran like a rapid river. The sound was loud, but not as prominent as the enthusiasm on the faces of the people who worked to make it happen. Aberdeen Mayor Doug Orr and Hoquiam Mayor Ben Winkelman, Aberdeen’s public works crew, a few state leaders, representatives from Quigg Bros, Inc., and HDR Engineering, Inc., watched.

It’s the first of three big steps toward flood protection for Grays Harbor residents.

David Lawrence shared a few words about the new pump station at the ribbon cutting for it on Tuesday afternoon. Lawrence is an Aberdeen City Councilor just like he was in 2022 when the city council approved HDR Engineering Inc and Quigg Brothers Inc., to do the project.

“I think it’s an amazing, it’s just an amazing pump,” Lawrence said. “It’s needed to help the cities, (it’ll) help both cities a lot. I’m just amazed at the amount of water that pumps.”

As Lawrence watched the water fill the space below him, he answered “yes” to whether he believes the statistic about it taking the pump station five minutes to fill an Olympic-sized pool.

“That’s a lot of water (and) that’s only two pumps running,” Lawrence said.

According to Nick Bird, engineer for the city of Aberdeen, only three pumps will run at a time, not four. The fourth is for “redundancy.” It’s to make sure in case one of the other pumps doesn’t run as it’s supposed to, they can still use the fourth one without any pause.

Bird was the keynote speaker for the ceremony and spoke about how Tuesday was “just another day in the rain” in Grays Harbor County.

“Our ground-breaking, it was 80-degrees I believe in the middle of July,” Bird said. “We had a freak rainstorm that came through, completely drenched us all. It was quite the experience. At least this time we had a little advanced notice. I see a lot of umbrellas out there, I see most people came prepared. For those who don’t have umbrellas, I’ll try to be real quick.”

After all, the point was to show off the power of the pumps.

Bird spoke about the flooding history of Grays Harbor. He provided a visual tour of yesteryear.

“For over 100 years, this area has flooded quite regularly,” Bird said. “One of the things I like to do is to get stuck in the Jones Photo collection. If you haven’t checked out the Jones Photo collection, it’s one of the really cool places to check out the historic Grays Harbor areas. A few of my favorite photos, a 1913 photo actually has a canoe going down Heron Street. Great photo. In 1923 there was a gentleman giving a piggyback ride across a flooded Heron Street. In 1934, someone was fishing on Wishkah and I streets. So I don’t know if you’re picking up on a pattern, but on a frequent basis — every 10 years — there’s major flooding that occurs down in this area.”

Bird described how the relationship between Aberdeen and Hoquiam has changed since the 1950s with one quick anecdote.

“There was a flooding event on Fry Creek,” Bird said. “I don’t know if it was the Hoquiam mayor at the time, but someone decided to put gravel down, down Myrtle Street, to make sure the floodwaters stayed in Aberdeen and didn’t cross the boundary into Hoquiam. I always chuckle at that. I think it’s quite funny. But honestly, that sense of neighborhood balance and camaraderie, I think today’s world is very, very different right now.”

Bird called the “key success” associated with Fry Creek Pump Station project and the Aberdeen-Hoquiam Flood Protection Project is the partnership between the cities of Aberdeen and Hoquiam.

“I don’t believe we’d be here if it wasn’t for this partnership that has been developed,” Bird said. “So thank you guys for your assistance through this process.”

Bird was in a good mood Tuesday afternoon as they watched the pump station work as it was supposed to. He described the operations of the pump station.

“Part of the way we intend to operate this facility is we know upstream of the Fry Creek area, Cherry Street is an area that has historically been bad,” Bird said. “Part of what we’re going to be doing is zeroing in on where that threshold is at on Cherry Street, so that we can facilitate sub-points on the upstream end because we’ve got upstream sensors as well that measure how much water is in the creek up there. So we’re gonna utilize that to drive when we’re gonna be turning these on and having the gates close. The propensity for upstream flooding should be nonexistent once after we get it dialed in.”

Does that mean dry basements and drier lawns?

“That’s the game plan,” Bird said. “Part of what is going to need to occur is there’s going to be a little period of trial-and-error, where we’re gonna have to go ‘OK, this sub-point, that’s not low enough, we need to drop that down here.’ And then we see the next storm and go ‘um, that’s still not low enough, let’s go a little bit lower, that sub-point works well.’ Now if there are basements on Cherry Street, I don’t know if there are a lot of basements in this area, but any time you have groundwater as high as we have it, basements and groundwater generally don’t mix so I can’t speak to that one. But what I can tell you is when it comes to keeping water off of the roadway, keeping water out of lawns, that should be the expectation. Now if a lawn is lower than everything around it, I can’t get the water out of it. There will be a little trial-and-error that will occur from the collection system, for lack of better words, over the next year. But as we get it dialed in, I expect significant improvements over there.”

Bird was happy to see how many people showed up to the ribbon cutting ceremony, despite how rainy it was.

“I’m amazed that as many people came out as they did,” Bird said. “I fully expected the weather to really, really impact the amount of people who would turn out. The turnout was great. We had people from both legislative districts. We had people representing both cities. We had Port (of Grays Harbor), (and) county representatives here, we’ve got Department of Ecology representatives here, office of Chehalis Basin representatives here. The fact that there were so many partners associated with this project who came out and celebrated this milestone, that’s really, really awesome.”

Winkelman spoke about how much he and others who represent the area care about making the levee happen.

“All of the local representatives in Aberdeen and Hoquiam think about the levee every single day,” Winkelman said. “The benefits will be huge. I’m excited every day.”

Winkelman sees the Aberdeen-Hoquiam Flood Protection Project as top priority for the area.

“I think as long as we all continue to think about it every day, that’s what’s gonna get it completed,” Winkelman said. “It’s basically a 20-year project, or 15 … (Fry Creek) pump station is a perfect example of the two cities working together to get it done for the greater good of both cities. I think about every elected official thinks about it every day. Doesn’t matter if it’s 100 degrees and sunny outside, if it hasn’t rained in three weeks, we still think about the flood waters. I literally can’t think of a day when I haven’t thought about it.”

Orr, like everybody else in attendance, was in a good mood Tuesday afternoon.

“I think it’s a great thing,” Orr said. “It’s about time, it’s something we’ve needed for a long time. I think it’s gonna be great. The levee, when we get that, is gonna be the, probably the biggest thing that could have possibly have happened to this little community — Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Cosi. I think it’s gonna just change everything. This is a really wonderful first step for it.”

Amongst the state representatives was Rep. Steve Tharinger. Tharinger, who is also chair of the House Capital Budget Committee came away impressed by coordinated work between local, county and state officials.

“This project is a great example of what is possible when the state, county, and cities partner together to address the increased risk of flooding from climate change,” Tharinger said.

Contact Reporter Matthew N. Wells at matthew.wells@thedailyworld.com.

Matthew N. Wells / The Daily World Nick Bird, engineer for the city of Aberdeen, was the keynote speaker during Tuesday afternoon’s Fry Creek Pump Station ribbon-cutting ceremony. Bird spoke about the history of flooding throughout Grays Harbor County.

Jones Photo Historical Collection One of the main points of the speech from Nick Bird, engineer for the city of Aberdeen, was how flooding has played a big part in Grays Harbor County’s history. He mentioned this photo, from 1913, which shows two men on a canoe rowing down Heron Street.