Commission planning steps for Sunny Sands beach nourishment

Wahkiakum County officials are planning to work with other local agencies and the US Army Corps of Engineers to establish a continuing beach nourishment program for Puget Island.

Erosion is again threatening waterfront homes on East Sunny Sands Road, and the Columbia continues to erode the North Welcome Slough Road dike and also along Ohrberg’s Beach.

County Commissioner Dan Cothren on Monday described the process to include the areas in the dredged sand disposal sites at a meeting with Sunny Sands residents, and Tuesday, he reviewed the process at the meeting of the board of commissioners.

The commission’s goal is to set up a process for a continuing program, and to get some sand placed along the Sunny Sands beach this year.

Cothren said he had spoken with a Corps official earlier on Monday and was encouraged at the prospect of setting up the continuing program.

One of the first steps, Cothren said, will be to find a local sponsor. County officials would prefer that be Consolidated Diking District No. 1, which maintains the Island’s dikes, or the Puget Island Erosion Control District, and commissioners plan to talk to governing boards of those entities about the project.

“If all else fails, the county probably would be the sponsor,” Cothren said.

The sponsor will work with the Corps to undertake the task of obtaining permits for the project. That can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and Cothren hopes to see local residents help pay expenses.

The county’s Cumulative Reserve for Flood Control can help cover costs, he said, but it has only $100,000 in it, and commissioners won’t want to spend all that on one project.

Cothren commented that he feels property owners outside the dike should pay for projects that protect their property, just as property owners inside the dike pay an assessment to the diking district.

Cothren said an assessment of $4 per $1,000 of assessed property value would probably be needed to cover permitting costs.

Sunny Sands residents attending Monday’s meeting had many comments.

Several expressed a desire to have a continuing, permitted program.

“If we’re going to put money into this, we should set up a static permit,” said Bob Consentine.

“This is what we’ve come up with,” Cothren responded, “to get something set in stone so we don’t have to revisit it.”

David Nelson commented that with the improving economy, ship traffic is continual. “So the Corps will want this [project] done for the ongoing channel maintenance,” he said.

Others commented that there should be an assessment on ships to pay for local damage caused by ship wakes.

Several discussed their property deeds and noted that houses were built outside the dike years ago after the Corps promised to keep providing dredged sand. It was suggested that written documentation of that promise could be used to spur the Corps into setting up the continuing program.

Island native Kayrene Gilbertsen commented that before the sand was deposited, the land outside the dike was the same level as the farmland inside the dike. Buildings were on pilings to keep them out of the tide, and there were docks and nethouses along the shoreline. At the upper end of Sunny Sands, she said, people wanted to have adequate water for boat traffic and thus didn’t want dredged sand deposits.

“It’s all new,” she said. “Trying to put sand out there and hold it on a slope that goes down at a 45 degree angle won’t work.”

Cothren commented that the Corps would likely want to place sand along the entire beach from the ferry landing to Netrack Slough at the upper end.

The Corps would need right-of-entry permits from land owners to allow the dredging contractor to work along the beach.

“The Corps wants one continuous piece,” he said. “That’s the biggest issue, getting all your neighbors to agree.”

He added that he had heard from people near the ferry landing who felt they didn’t need sand, and one woman, Karen Fleming, living midway up the beach said she didn’t want sand placed on her property.

Her property deed goes out to the ordinary high water mark, she said, and she didn’t want the state to have ownership in front of her.

The state Department of Natural Resources claims ownership of sand deposited on the Washington side of the river, and officials say that makes the deposited sand an open public beach.