WHATCOM COUNTY, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – Whatcom County is facing a long road ahead to manage the Nooksack River.

The county flood managers brought their early action plan in a presentation to the county council’s Public Works and Health Committee on Tuesday, Feb. 24. They say their plan will include several modes of action and will take several years to implement.

Those include channel creation in the Everson corridor, berm construction to protect Nooksack and Everson communities, levee improvements in Ferndale and other improvements.

Some of these projects will take some time to implement, as a pipeline running through where the county wants to cut a channel will take five years to move.

Flood manager Paula Harris estimates $182 million will be needed for projects within the next five years, while an estimated $474 million will be needed long-term.

“I’m meeting with my modelers like twice a week to get this work going and we’ve got our FLIP steering committee involved to try and develop a project that everybody will support at the end,” Harris told the council. “We’re really working actively [on] this, hopefully that we can have a concept in the next couple, three months.”

County officials asked the state for $15 million ahead of this presentation.

Public Works Director Elizabeth Kosa said $13.05 million in the Senate and $9 million in the House is in the requested budgets.