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How Deep is It? by Bonnie Schonefeld Lewiston Tribune, April 18, 2013

Could someone speak the truth about the depth of the navigation channel and Port of Lewiston berthing area?

When asked about the depth around the port's container dock in August, according to an article in the Lewiston Tribune, port Manager David Doeringsfeld told visiting Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood: "It's about 17 or 18 feet."

Four months later, in response to the Army Corps of Engineers' plan to dredge the shipping channel and berthing area, Doeringsfeld told the Lewiston Tribune that shallow water in the port's berthing area was causing delays in barge loading. In the port's new "it just makes cents (sense)!" ad campaign, shown on its website, designed to attract oversize shipments for transport on U.S. Highway 12 the port boasts of a 14-foot-deep navigational channel. In another promotional piece on the website, "Specialty/Oversize Cargo," the port tells prospective customers, "The river channel is a minimum of 14 feet deep."

Either the Port of Lewiston is being dishonest in its advertising or taxpayers can save most of the $39 million the Army Corps now says it needs to carry out its sediment management plan for the Snake/Clearwater confluence and Clearwater River navigation channel.