Local ports, officials list concerns with shoaling issues

Shoaling of side channels and harbor entrances along the lower Columbia River continues to concern local officials.

Boaters and officials from Wahkiakum County and Port Districts 1 and 2 are concerned that their waters are getting more and more shallow, that they can't afford dredging, and that they can't get help from the US Army Corps of Engineers, which maintains the deep water shipping channel in the river.

In a Tuesday forum for community leaders sponsored by the Cowlitz/Wahkiakum Council of Governments (COG), Jackie Lea, manager of Port District 1, which operates the Elochoman Slough Marina, said shoaling in the river, Elochoman Slough and the marina is becoming an increasing problem. The river is shoaling so much that it may be too shallow to allow a clam shell dredge on a barge to enter the slough and marina.

The US Coast Guard earlier this year removed channel markers from the channel above the Puget Island bridge because the channel was filling in. That channel isn't maintained for shipping.

Local people need to be loud in demanding assistance from the Corps for channel maintenance, said Commissioner Dan Cothren.

"Pretty quick you aren't going to get in there (Elochoman Slough Marina)," he said.

The cost of obtaining state and federal permits for a dredging project is very high, said Lea and Commissioner Mike Backman.

"When it costs more to get the permits than to do the dredging, there's a problem there," Backman said.

Lea indicated she had talked with Corps officials about dredging and that she had been told the agency is facing budget problems.

A lack of funding for dredging small ports is a nationwide problem, said COG interim director Melissa Taylor. "It's all the more frustrating."

Wahkiakum County Public Works Director Pete Ringen said dredging is a major concern for the county's new ferry.

The new ferry will be larger than the current ferry and require deeper water and a larger channel than the Wahkiakum, he said.

Ringen has been working with the Corps to plan the channel improvements. At this point, the Corps has essentially agreed to dredge the channel from the Westport, Ore., dock to within 50 feet of the Puget Island dock, he said.

The county will have to move some pilings and modify the loading ramp to accommodate the new ferry, so the Corps is leaving dredging of that area to the county.

Ringen said that means he'll have a host of permitting issues to deal with on top of the ramp construction and ferry construction.

"A lot of things have to come together," he said.

The county has put the ferry construction project out to bid once and rejected the only bid.

Ringen is preparing a new call for bids with revised requirements in the format used in the ship building industry.

If the contract is awarded this round, the ferry could be completed next year.

County commissioners on Tuesday had only one bid to rebuild an engine just removed from the Wahkiakum.

Commissioners have agreed they need to have a spare engine on hand in case one of the ferry's two engines fails, for the US Coast Guard won't permit the ferry to operate on only one engine.

Cummins Northwest was the only bidder at $23,596.34. Ringen said the bid was in the range he was expecting; he will review the bid and make a recommendation next week on whether or not to accept it.