More than a month after taking precautions to save his home, Matt McWilliams, 59, says the threat of the Dungeness River is closer than ever.

In December, McWilliams and a friend put logs and debris in the river to deter the current from eroding soil by his home at 131 Serenity Lane, about 2.5 miles south of U.S. Highway 101 off River Road.

But a recent storm has put the river back on track toward his home.

“If you want to take your life in your hands, you can walk on the deck,” McWilliams said.

Portions of the deck’s support beams now float above the river and McWilliams recently put suspension wires from the side of his home to the deck to keep it from falling into the Dungeness.

“The river’s ready to take the house,” he said.

For the 3 1/2 years McWilliams and his wife Michele, 53, have lived in the home, the river has progressively taken away their backyard.

When he first moved, McWilliams — a retired firefighter with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection — said the river flowed west of a large island with a smaller side channel going east but a storm in November 2014 took out a large part of his meadow followed by another portion in February 2015.

In December, he rented an excavator to relieve the river by creating a side channel, which ties back into the Dungeness about a quarter-mile downstream.

That month, the Dungeness River peaked at slightly above its flood stage of 7 feet with a discharge of more than 4,000 cubic feet of water per second, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

On Jan. 29, the river was at 5.15 feet, with a discharge of 1,680 cubic feet per second.

Purchase plan

With the river roaring nearby, McWilliams said on Jan. 28 he’s waiting on a plan to relocate from the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. They completed the purchase of the property on Jan. 13 with the intent to restore the floodplain for salmon habitat as part of its ongoing Dungeness Floodplain Restoration Project.

So far, the tribe has purchased 20 acres from the Robinson family in Seattle, which includes McWilliams’ rented home, for a cost of $1,218,000, according to the Washington state Recreation and Conservation Office.

The tribe will use a $1,157,700 grant recently awarded by the state’s Salmon Recovery Funding Board to purchase the property and contribute $204,300 in matching funds to complete the project.

Robert Knapp, Jamestown habitat restoration planner, said they also are looking to purchase nine acres, including 21 Serenity Lane, owned by other private parties.

Knapp said they are not currently looking to purchase more properties along the river with tenants.

Tribe officials previously said the project retires at least six development rights, moves four residences from harm’s way, removes infrastructure from the floodplain and permanently preserves floodplain habitat and salmon habitat-forming processes.

The effort, tribe officials said, benefits Endangered Species Act-listed chinook salmon, bull trout, summer chum salmon and steelhead fish species along with coho, pink and fall chum salmon.

Comparable property

McWilliams said his rent was due to the tribe effective Feb. 1, but that he’s waiting on relocation assistance from their contracted firm Epic Land Solutions, which is looking for a comparable home to rent or buy to his current one.

Knapp said because public funds were used for the purchase, tenants are entitled to relocation assistance, which went into effect in November and ends in mid-February.

“During that 90-day notice, we have encouraged the tenants to move as soon as able to,” Knapp said. “In our opinion it’s not safe.”

Knapp said he isn’t sure if the “(Dungeness River) will allow the timeline.”

“We would love to give them time to move out at their leisure,” Knapp said.

McWilliams said he and his wife have been looking daily online and in newspapers across the state with the hope to find a home along water again.

“I rented it for the river and Department of Natural Resources land,” McWilliams said. “I can find peace there from a stressful day.”

McWilliams said he does have some concerns about the stipulations behind the relocation services such as finances and timeliness. Knapp said all relocation rules are supervised and handled through the Washington State Department of Transportation.

Once the homes are empty, Knapp said they’ll work to remove the structures as quickly as possible while carefully looking for and removing asbestos. They’ll also look to plant native plants, he said, but some areas they wanted to plant already have been taken by the river.

Latest update

Randy Johnson, Jamestown habitat program manager, said on Feb. 2 the tenants soon will be issued 20-day notices to leave the premises but he’s unsure when.

He said Epic provided three comparable dwellings for each tenant in November and another for one of the two tenants in December but they all cost more than the tenants’ existing rent. The tribe will pay the difference between the current rent and the new rent for 42 months along with moving expenses within a certain geographical area, Johnson said.

McWilliams could not be reached for comment about the notices.