CHINOOK Challenges associated with the mouth of the Columbia River are being tackled collaboratively by a relatively new group on the scene, the Lower Columbia Solutions Group (LCSG). A milestone vote by LCSG last Friday at Fort Columbia could mark a dramatic change in direction. 

On the long-standing and contentious issue of dredged materials dumping, Dale Beasley, LCSG member and fleet leader of the Columbia River Crab Fishermens Association (CRCFA), said, The Mouth of the Columbia (MCR) Regional Sediment Management Plan is nearing completion and a voice vote to accept the plan was unanimous. 

The newly adopted preliminary plan calls for the identification of two new near-shore dumping sites for millions of cubic yards of dredged sediments. One is in 40- to 70-foot water just off of the North Jetty and a second in 40 to 60 feet off the South Jetty. This is a change from the Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) practice of deep water dumping, which does nothing to abate the process of shore erosion and, in fact, augments dangerous wave amplification for fishing and crabbing vessels.

As Jim Neva, Port of Ilwaco manager and LCSG member, confirms, The issue of the safety of mounding has been a concern for years and the erosion on the coast is another. Material is lost to the system because its dumped into deep water.

Collaboration to find solutions

Beasley has been a proponent of near-shoring placement of dredged materials for years and is cautiously optimistic toward the Mouth of the Columbia River Regional Sediment Management Plan that was presented and discussed at last Fridays meeting.

For this sediment management plan to be successful in the future there is a lot riding on trust, said Beasley. Precautionary adaptive management with a heavy dose of biologic monitoring to assess impacts to marine ecosystems will be needed. 

The concept of precautionary adaptive management has to do with the idea that problems of safety or crab mortality be addressed and needed modifications made to the plan when concerns are identified rather than after the fact when damage has already been done. But even this concept is not well-defined. 

According to Beasley, Precautionary adaptive management is going at the situation in small steps, say a small area, not the entire site with the target amount of sediment, so that we can monitor for results that are verifiable, not someones opinion, but that hard numbers are developed. 

Neva shared some further detail on the concerns, There are two main issues Dale Beasley and I have been pushing in the group where dredge materials are placed in terms of the safety of mounding; and trying to slow erosion down by advocating for on- or near-shore placement of dredged materials.

ACOE dumping of dredged material in pinpointed designated spots has created underwater mounds that can cause unexpected turbulence. These have taken the lives of several local fishermen, commercial and sportfishers alike, and also contribute to crab mortality as dredged materials bury the shellfish too quickly for them to dig out.

Weve been working on this for 10 years Dales probably been at it 15 years or more and we finally have a basic agreement on this issue. Its a turn around and it never would have happened without the LCSG taking this on because of the credibility of so many of the players sitting at the table in the same room.

LCSG Bi-state Clearinghouse

LCSG was founded in 2002 and is a bi-state partnership of local, state and federal stakeholders to raise issues, collaborate on policy and develop solutions for sediment management in the lower Columbia River. Members include Peter Huhtula, from Clatsop County; Jack Crider, Port of Astoria; Doris McKillip, Kevin Brice, Mike Ott, ACOE; Lionel Klikoff, State Department of Natural Resources; Nancy Pustis, Oregon State Lands; Hobe Kytr, Salmon for All;  and Caren Braby, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife among others.

Mike Desimone who sat in the group for Pacific County, will be replaced by Faith Taylor-Eldred, who commented, I wasnt able to make this meeting. But I have participated in a number of the conference calls so far and look forward to being part of the organization.

The LCSG serves as the key clearinghouse to coordinate policy, projects and research related to dredge material disposal and sediment management on the lower Columbia River. LCSG has been officially supported by the White House Council on Environmental Quality and is currently being moderated by Steve Greenwood of the National Policy Consensus Center at Portland State University. Funds to support the LCSG process have come from a variety of the local, state and federal participant organizations.

Kytr shared his view on how the collaborative nature of this group had begun to pay dividends. Fifteen years ago, dredging issues were extremely divisive, and often confrontational. Dale Beasley and the crabbers were at loggerheads with the Corps of Engineers over maintenance dredging at the mouth of the Columbia River. Dale attended every meeting, and provided impassioned testimony at every hearing … but, he got almost nowhere.

After the LCSG was formed, Kytr said, It wasnt the Corps versus the crabbers anymore; it was a consortium of all the state and federal agencies sitting down with county representatives, ports, fishing organizations, and other interested parties to find common ground and regional solutions.

And it worked, he added.

Kytr joined the consortium in 2009. Areas touching my constituencys concerns [healthy salmon] havent come up yet. But when they do, I have a place at the table.

 

New Issue: Sediment Rights

Beasley has been doing some deep thinking about another concept that is just being developed by some West Coast organizations; it is being called sediment rights. The new concept has yet to be definitively described but it has to do with the fact that over time on the North Coast, the industrialization of the Columbia River has resulted in the loss of the down-flowing sediment that created the Peninsula.

In fact, the sediment from the free-flowing Columbia River produced not only the Peninsula but the resulting Willapa Bay. In effect, those eons of sediment deposit created a natural environmental system that has added incredible value to the region in the form of the rich shellfish environment and tide lands for oysters, clams and salmon.

Beasleys sediment rights point is that by damming the Columbia to provide for safer industrial transport and for cheaper energy prices, our region has lost this valuable resource fresh water carried silt and sediment. 

The erosion at Benson, Clatsop and Washaway beaches (and is now beginning to be measurable on the Peninsula itself) is an undeniable result of the construction of the jetties and the damming of the Columbia Rivers flow.

 

Port contamination from upriver

Beasley proposes that those that have benefited and will continue to benefit from truncating the sediment supply to the coast need to pay for the solution, not attempt to transfer responsibility to coastal communities for correcting a problem not of their own making. He also points out that the contaminated sediment and dredged material from Ilwaco Harbor and the Astoria ship basin is a result of upriver agriculture.

The USDA should be taking more responsibility for dealing with the contamination that is created upriver and ends up here at the coast, said Beasley.

Neva concurs with the concept, though he admits it is a new way of looking at coastal problems, When Beasley introduced the idea of sediment rights its the first that Ive heard of it but I think theres some merit to it. It will be interesting to pursue this issue weve got it on the agenda for our next LCSG meeting.

The sediment rights issue is food for thought. Dale gave us a heads up on it. Ive always maintained that the contamination in our dredged sediment here at the port [Ilwaco] shouldnt be only our problem and its worse in Astoria, he said. Ive been maintaining for several years that USDA should be carrying some of the responsibility for that. Its a huge cost to deal with the DDT-waste from agricultural practices in eastern Washington and Oregon. And you cant put your finger on any given farm.

Bonneville Power Administration, and its energy clients, is one of the main beneficiaries of the damming of the Columbia. One suggestion might be to spread out the cost of contaminated dredged material mitigation. Neva continued, The point is that to require BPA to recover some of these costs from electrical users might be a way to raise enough money to complete these projects. It would be a tiny incremental charge.

But we need to have ports from both sides of the river working on the issue, he added.

Next steps

The LCSG continues to meet on old challenges and new issues like the sediment rights question. The multi-stakeholder approach means that all involved can discuss the challenges and attempt to come to a common understanding of what project solutions might be appropriate. Then a range of funding sources can be tapped.

Sometimes the challenges are not solely based on conflicting interests. Beasley makes the point that there is not enough hardcore scientific knowledge about the issues being raised. Right now we are working on assumptions and anecdotal information.

But as Kytr, Beasley and Neva agree, it is the power of bringing all parties to the table for conversation that has provided the LCSG with its successes to date.

Lionel Klikoff, sediment unit supervisor in aquatic resources for the Washington Department of Natural Resources, added, From my perspective, it was a very good meeting. We have developed a well-received overall plan [for dredged materials management], which has addressed major problems at the mouth of the Columbia. A key part of the project will be to maintain appropriate levels of funding to ensure effective monitoring to inform adaptive management decisions as we move forward in the process.

Beasley, ever the watchdog, concurs, We dont have a good baseline on the scientific effects of these practices yet. The final analysis is what happens over the next decade and it will largely depend on the adequacy of the funding.

Beasley is also hopeful that a reliable source of funding may eventually develop to address our growing coastal erosion problem or what he calls our slow moving disaster, erosion.  Of the new concept sediment rights, he added, The LCSG had a good initial reaction to the concept, a positive sign for success at dealing directly with maintenance of the shoreline.