Refuge roads closing for tidegate project

Roads around the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge for the Columbian White-tailed Deer will be closed in places this summer for installation of new tidegates.

US Army Corps of Engineers officials who designed the project said roads would deadend at the point where construction was occurring; motorists would be able to drive to the work site and return the way they came.

The project is set to begin next Wednesday. Wahkiakum County commissioners on Tuesday authorized closures from July 15 to September 30.

The new tidegates are part of a project designed to increase shallow water habitat for juvenile salmon migrating down the Columbia. Corps project coordinator Chris Ferguson said the new tidegates are designed to allow fish to pass through them easily when they're open, and because they're more efficient than existing tidegates, they will improve drainage.

Initially, they'll be set to maintain the present water level. At some point, operators may adjust the water level to a height mutually agreeable to refuge managers and Diking District No. 4, of which the refuge and its drainage system is a part.

The project contractor, Tapani Underground, will have to cut through the dike to install the new tidegates.

On Steamboat Slough Road, new tidegates will be installed at the mouth of Indian Jack Slough near the refuge office; at the mouth of Winter Slough just down stream from the head of Steamboat Slough, and at a slough further down Steamboat Slough toward Skamokawa.

On Brooks Slough, new tidegates will be installed at Hampson Slough and at the Brooks Slough pump station at the head of the slough.

County commissioners had previously told Corps officials they wouldn't authorize the closures if Diking District 4 commissioners didn't support the plan.

"I talked with (Diking Commissioner) Maury Mooers this morning, and he was agreeable to the plan," said county Commissioner Blair Brady.

"I helped facilitate the agreement with Maury," said Commissioner Lisa Marsyla. "I don't have any issues with it."

"With Maury Mooers on board, we can bring this thing to closure," said commission Chair Dan Cothren. Blair moved to approve the closures; Marsyla seconded the motion, and it passed.