Permits, budget hamper dredging, ferry work

Holes in the federal budget and new requirements for permits are delaying Puget Island ferry and erosion control work, Wahkiakum County commissioners learned Tuesday.

Public Works Director Pete Ringen reported that it is no longer certain that ship channel dredge spoils will be placed along East Sunny Sands this summer.

Ringen and Commissioner Dan Cothren agreed they had been told last fall that a dredge would place the spoils along the beach, which is subject to erosion from jetties used to direct current in the ship channel.

But after a conference phone call with officials from the US Army Corps of Engineers, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and the county's consulting engineers, that work is not guaranteed.

Also, NMFS is requiring the county to pass an ordinance stating that any sand pumped along the beach becomes public property and no structures may be built on it.

The county will send a letter to East Sunny Sands property owners to notify them of the proposed ordinance; a public hearing on it will be held at 6 p.m. on March 4.

In the January 28 conference call, Corps officials said county permit applications are progressing, but they expressed displeasure that rocks had been dumped to protect private property on Ostervold Road from erosion.

Ringen said he had to explain that the private property owner had conducted the action, not the county.

Ringen also reported that Corps officials are doubtful they have funding to dredge the Westport ferry channel, which is shoaling up and making ferry travel difficult in times of low river levels.

Corps officials said they would check to make sure the federal budget bills contain funding for the projects; if not they may be delayed.