Feds move to fast-track a Juneau flood-control fix by cutting permitting and paperwork

Days after Juneau's latest glacial outburst flood forced evacuations in the Mendenhall Valley, federal agencies are moving to speed up a flood-control fix for the city — by deliberately cutting the permitting and paperwork that normally slow such projects.

The floods have hit Juneau every year since 2011, and the 2024 event inundated roughly 300 homes. On Aug. 7, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the USDA and the Interior Department announced a push they're calling "Building Infrastructure, Not Paperwork," with the Corps saying it would seek proposals to tackle the floods while "deliberately avoiding burdensome processes and paperwork." A week later, on Aug. 14, it posted the solicitation — for an emergency water-conveyance prototype in the Mendenhall Valley, with proposals due Sept. 4. The agencies did not say which specific requirements would be set aside.

The push comes on top of flood-control work already expanding on the ground. A second phase finished in July added about 2.7 miles of gabion baskets — wire cages filled with rock — nearly two miles of riverbank armoring, an 1,100-foot earthen berm, and dozens of pumps.

It was tested almost immediately. Suicide Basin, the ice-dammed lake that feeds the floods, overtopped days later, prompting evacuations before the joint command of the city, Tlingit & Haida and the Coast Guard declared the threat over on Aug. 13. The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes and the City and Borough of Juneau had together asked the federal government for faster permitting, emergency help and long-term flood protection.