Islanders fend off erosion

Emergency permits from state and federal agencies didn't come too soon for Pat and Bob Ohrberg.

The Ohrbergs and their neighbors have been watching the Columbia River erode the shoreline in front of their property for years, and this winter's storms and high water have cut the bank to close proximity of houses and outbuildings.

With emergency permits that arrived last week, the Ohrbergs were able to place riprap along the edge of the worst cut and dump sand behind it in an effort to keep the river at bay until this summer, when Wahkiakum County officials have scheduled a large deposit of dredge spoils along the beach to ease erosion threats and replenish the county road department's sand pit at the end of Ostervold Road.

"I hope we can last that long," Bob Ohrberg said Friday on the beach. "It's really eroding fast, and the high water didn't help."

Ohrberg said channel dredging work and ship wakes are the biggest factors in the erosion. A jetty across the channel along Tenasillahe Island deflects the current toward the lower end of Puget Island. The US Corps of Engineers dredging is bringing a deep channel close to the Puget Island shore, and the current and ship wakes cause the sand to slough off.

Years ago, there was lots of sand spoils along the beach, and the river was far from the buildings, Ohrberg said. That has disappeared. Ohrberg installed a vinyl sheet bulkhead, and the river has pounded its way through that.

"Corps officers and Congressman Brian Baird came out here after the January flooding, and when they saw that, they said we should get an emergency permit," Ohrberg said.

Newly elected Wahkiakum County Commissioner Lisa Marsyla worked with the Ohrbergs, Corps of Engineers, state Department of Wildlife and other agencies to obtain the permit.

"Everybody cooperated, and it went really smooth," she said Tuesday.

That success has been the exception to the rule. Ohrberg said the county and Corps had scheduled deposit of spoils along the beach last year, but the dredge passed by the beach to work in another area, and the work was postponed to summer of this year.

"There's been one setback after another," Ohrberg said. "There's always something. Last time was the topper."