Local News

August 30, 2007

The dredge "Oregon" is doing maintenance dredging in the Wauna Channel, and spoils are being dumped in 80-foot scour holes causing erosion on Puget Island.

A Port of Portland pipeline dredge is placing sand spoils in erosion causing scour holes along the shoreline of Puget Island’s East Sunny Sands.
The crew of the Oregon, working on a channel maintenance contract with the US Army Corps of Engineers, is dumping spoils from the Wauna channel in the three holes on the river bottom below a pile dike at Pancake Point.
The area has been subject to erosion that is threatening several homes. County officials have been working with state and federal agencies for several years to address the situation, and this year, the Corps was able to direct the dredge to place the spoils in the scour holes, which are created by eddies created by the pile dike.

The Corps used the work to provide a tour of the project and meet with county officials and US Representative Brian Baird, who has worked the get funding and authority included in federal legislation.
“We’re still hoping for a long-term solution,” said Col. Tom O’Donovan, commander of the Portland district. “This is an interim policy.
"We'd really prefer no building outside the levees.”
Wahkiakum County hired a consulting firm several years ago which demonstrated the pile dikes caused the eddies and scour holes, which in turn created erosion at Pancake Point and downstream along North Welcome Slough Road.
The county obtained permits to place sand in the holes, and the Corps included the work in its contracts this year with the Port of Portland. The North Welcome Slough site received sand earlier this year.

 

Col. Tom O'Donovon, Portland Corps of Engineers commander, and Congressman Brian Baird stand on a Corps launch over scour holes in front of eroding shoreline at Pancake Point.

The county also had hoped to have a permit allowing the dredge to place sand on the beach at Pancake Point, but that permit is still being reviewed. George Trott, chairman of the board of commissioners, said the permit had been approved by the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife and was passed on to the Seattle Corps of Engineers office, which handles permitting on the Washington shore, for review. Trott said there was a chance it would be approved this week in time for the dredge to place sand on the beach before leaving the area.
Dredge Captain Jeff Hockinson said the project called for placing 134,000 cubic yards of sand in the scour holes. The dredge on Tuesday was pumping spoils approximately 3,000 feet to the holes.
Hockinson said the dredgers had placed spotting boards along the shoreline to monitor bank stability. At any sign of sloughing, they would notify residents and stop dredging, he said.
Congressman Baird said he was happy to see the project underway and providing some stability for the shoreline.
“A few years ago, we were out here with county officials and students and volunteers putting sand bags in front of Nina Lou Watson’s home, and they’re gone now,” he said. “This is good.”