Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Erosion eats away property at 98 E. Sunny Sands Road. The 30-year-old willow trees' roots are exposed, and they are about to fall into the river. The white pipes are drainage pipes that used to run underground.
To The Eagle:
We want to thank the Wahkiakum County Planning Commission for standing with the community in their February 26 vote to reject the Port of Longview's proposal to dispose dredge material inside the dike of East Sunny Sands Road. The proposal was vague in long term management while wanting to begin in September. But the most important failure in the proposal is that it would by-pass the necessary replenishment of sands onto the beaches of Puget Island.
This was the community's vital concern that this proposal neglected to first replenish the sands onto the eroding beaches on Puget Island, erosion caused by the flow of the Columbia River, the waves generated by the shipping traffic, and the act of dredging itself. (As the river is dredged the sides erode even faster.)
Many decades ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to "perpetually" replenish the eroding beaches every five years. The last time the entire stretch of beach on Pancake Point was replenished was sometime in the 1980's. The beach is long past a replenishment treatment. The concern is that once they begin dredging in front of Pancake Point, take the dredging across Sunny Sands Road and dump it inside the dike on 90+ acres of pristine pasture land, it will by-pass any future hope of getting our beaches replenished ever again.
What is the benefit for sand inside the dike when it's not being used to replenish the beaches? Wahkiakum County and its residents get only negatives. The county loses assessed values of eroding beach front properties; septic systems will be threatened of failing; the county will have to maintain the pipeline over Sunny Sands Road; there will be a cost to move power lines in the area of the deposit site; the county loses assessed values of the pasture for a sand pile, and the county faces litigation when homes are threatened of falling into the Columbia River. The county doesn't even get the use of the sand; the state Department of Natural Resources will own it.
Now that the county has rejected the proposal, they have leverage to include specific stipulations, foremost is the replenishment of beaches before any sand goes inside the dike, as well as for all costs incurred by the county.
Jerry and Shirley Rheault, Cathlamet
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