Beach nourishment work coming together

By Rick Nelson

Is the Wahkiakum County effort to arrange for dredge spoils nourishment on eroding beaches any closer to action:

That was the question residents of Cape Horn and East Sunny Sands on Puget Island posed to the county board of commissioners on Tuesday.

And the answer: Yes, but there are details to address.

First, county officials are waiting for the US Army Corps of Engineers' legal department to rewrite wording on the right-of-entry easements which land owners must sign so that dredge crews can work along their shorelines.

Many Cape Horn residents signed the first version from the Corps, but many Island residents balked, saying the ambiguous wording on the form would have allowed the dredge crews to do whatever they wanted on the property. They asked that the wording be changed to specify that access is limited to the shoreline, and the Corps's counsels have been working on that change, which should be completed this week.

Commissioner Dan Cothren reported Tuesday that he had spoken that morning with Karla Ellis, a Corps contact in Portland. "She's working with the Seattle office and said she hopes it will be done today or tomorrow (Wednesday)," Cothren said.

Commissioners have said the Corps wants all landowners in the erosion district to sign entry easement so that the dredging crews will have a sufficiently large disposal site. However, some property owners on both Cape Horn and Sunny Sands have said they don't want to sign in any case.

"Hopefully, with the wording change, those folds will be more at ease," Cothren said. "The wording was a big concern on the Island. There are two at Cape Horn; we'll just have to talk to them."

Commissioner Mike Backman said he and Cothren could start talking to reluctant signers as soon as the new entry permits arrive.

In a second issue, Public Works Director Chuck Beyer has been reviewing agency comments on the county's Joint Aquatic Resources Permit Application (JARPA), a permit process that simultaneously addresses federal, state and local permits.

Once final changes are complete, Beyer said the permit would be submitted for review by federal agencies. That could take several months, but it might go faster than that because of interest by the county's congressional delegation.

The permit will have to undergo local public review, and that process would take 90 days. That review could start this month or next.

In a third issue, Island residents asked what could be done to slow the speeds of passing ships and tugboats. Their wakes generate erosion, property owners said.

Liz Beutler, whose family owns property on East Sunny Sands, described an incident involving erosion caused by a tug and barge.

"I almost called the tugboat company," she said. "The tug went by, pushing up a big wall of water; you just see the sand disappear."

Cothren said the issue has been discussed before in meetings with officials from upriver ports and the Corps of Engineers.

"I'm just saying, keep working on it," Beutler said.

Cape Horn resident John Pollack said he had monitored ship speeds on a website. Recently a US Navy ship went by at 14.8 knots and put up a huge wake, he said.

In the past, river pilots have told commissioners that in certain areas, a ship has to have enough speed to have sufficient pressure on the rudder to be able to steer the vessel.

Cothren said the beach nourishment program under consideration would be for a 10-year period and help address that problem because it would authorize continual maintenance when sand is available.

"Hopefully, now we're in for the long haul which will make the difference that when the sand is available, we'll get it," he said.