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First Channel Deepening Ecosystem Project Completed by CBB Staff Columbia Basin Bulletin - October 1, 2004

The first ecosystem restoration project associated with the Columbia River Channel Improvement Project has been completed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced this week.

The construction activities at Lord-Walker Island, near Longview, Wash., involved the excavation of 620 cubic yards of sand from the downstream end of Lord Island to improve water conditions to the embayments within the island complex. The improved conditions will provide additional habitat for juvenile salmon during their migration to the Pacific Ocean.

Larson Marine Services of Portland, Ore., was awarded a $5,199 contract to perform the work, which took place between Sept. 23 and Sept. 26.

No work took place within the navigation channel.

The work at Lord-Walker Island marks the first construction action on the $134 million channel deepening project. The project's dual purposes, says the Corps and other supporters, are to improve the deep-draft transport of goods on the authorized Columbia River navigation channel and to provide ecosystem restoration for fish and wildlife habitats.

The Columbia River Channel Improvement Project is a federal water resources development project authorized by the U.S. Congress and administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The ports of Portland and St. Helens, in Oregon, and Vancouver, Longview, Kalama and Woodland, in Washington, are the local sponsors. The states of Oregon and Washington have committed $55.4 million toward the completion of the project.

Unless pending litigation halts or delays the project, additional environmental work and efforts to deepen the navigation channel is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2005.