The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

In a replay of a situation that occurred in the 1990s, local officials are becoming concerned with erosion along Steamboat Slough Road.

The section of road lies on a dike separating the Columbia River and the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge for the Columbian White-tailed Deer. The river is 90 feet deep in some places in that area, and the thalmud, or deepest part of the river, lies close to the bank.

In 1997-98, Wahkiakum County, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Diking District No. 4 developed a project to armor the bank, which was sliding away under the county road.

On May 10, county Public Works Director Pete Ringen told the board of county commissioners a similar project may be needed.

The cause of the current problem is unknown, Ringen reported. He planned to have soundings taken and to meet with officials from the state and federal emergency management agencies to determine if the bank qualifies for disaster assistance.

Ringen also planned to contact US Congressional representatives to alert them of the situation.

Ringen was out of town early this week and was unavailable for updated comment.

Joel David, local manager of the game refuge, had made Ringen aware of the situation. The Fish and Wildlife Service, at this time, has no plans for repairing the dike, he said Tuesday, for it belongs to the diking district.

Maury Mooers, the last remaining diking district commissioner, said Tuesday that it will be up to the county, state and federal government agencies to design and finance a repair project. The Fish and Wildlife Service owns almost all the land in the diking district, and Mooers is the sole local private landowner to serve on the board.

"It's not good," Mooers said of the erosion. "It's the same thing we've always dealt with there. They're going to have to step up with the money."

He added that if the district were to assess a levy to finance a project, almost all the money would come from Fish and Wildlife Service because it owns most of the land in the district.

"The reality is that the US Army Corps of Engineers and Fish and Wildlife went together and fixed it the last time," he said. "I suspect it will be something like that again."

Mooers believes the erosion is a result of Corps of Engineeers practices to maintain the Columbia River shipping channel.

Dredgers have piled up sand at the head of Puget Island, he said, and this is eroding and filling in the Cathlamet Channel. The shallower Cathlamet Channel doesn't carry as much water, and it doesn't deflect the current of the main channel away from the refuge when the two channels join at the lower end of the Island.

"There's no major flow from the Cathlamet Channel," he said. "There's so much coming through the other way that it will take the dike."

Mooers added that officials thought they had solved the erosion issue with their revetment work in 1998, but this erosion is occurring just downstream from where that work occurred.

The strong current is hitting the bank in a new spot, he said, and it is eroding the island a bit further down stream that forms one shoreline for Steamboat Slough.

"In 10 years, that island won't be there," Mooers predicted.