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

The US Army Corps of Engineers has construction of a new portion of Steamboat Slough Dike and turning approximatly 200 acres of the Julia Butler Hansen National Refuge for the Columbian White-tailed Deer into wetlands.

The new dike would be built inland from the existing dike, which the Columbia has been eroding for the past few years to the point that geotchnical engineers feel a slide could occur at any time and send a portion of the dike into the river. Such a breach would flood the refuge and make it subject to the river's tides.

The Corps proposal would be funded by Section 536 funding; this is funding which is allocated for restoration or creation of habitat for salmonids.

Local and federal officials have been unable to find other funding. A diking district owns the dike, but it is not part of the Corps of Engineers diking program. Wahkiakum County owns the road on top of the dike. Because the dike isn't part of its program, the Corps lacks authorization to spend diking funds on the dike.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service owns the refuge, but, according to the region's second in command, Ben Harrison, Fish and Wildlife can't spend money on property it doesn't own. Further, Congress hasn't allocated any funding for the agencies to do the repair work. So the Corps's proposal has funding for a new dike but sacrifices some of the refuge's diked land as fish habitat.

Laura Hicks, chief of Planning and Project Management of the Corps, presented the proposal. She asked that local officials either support or reject it soon, for the Section 536 funds will be divided among competing projects, and they'll go elsewhere if not used for the Steamboat Slough project.

Maurice Mooers, one of the members of the diking district board of commissioners, slammed the proposal.

Mooers commented that the agency acquired an ownership interest in the dike when it bought the land for the refuge.

"You have a choice," he said to Harrison, "either you come up with the money, or we have a dike that's useless."

Mooers expressed overall dissatisfaction with the refuge--it hasn't helped white-tail deer, and it has taken away jobs and reduced the county's tax base.

Diking district officials would meet Wednesday (yesterday), he said, and they would consider ceding the dike to the Fish and Wildlife Service. "If we can give it to you, you'd better decide what you're going to do," he said. He then left the meeting.

If the dike ownership came with no strings attached, Fish and Wildlife could consider options, Harrison said; it would simplify some of their decisions.

Hicks commented that a change in ownership wouldn't occur fast enough to affect the Corps plan. "Nothing in the federal government moves that fast," she said.

Wahkiakum County commissioners said they agreed with some of Mooers's comments, but they indicated they understood the reality of the situation.

"This whole thing is hard to swallow," said commission Chair Dan Cothren. "When you turn stuff back into wetlands, that's hard to swallow."

"I agree wholeheartedly," said Commissioner Lisa Marsyla. "To me, the choice as a commissioner is to do nothing or to do what you can do and live with it."

"As you go, you have to weigh things," Cothren said.

Commissioner Blair Brady said he wants to make sure there will be access to the river for bank anglers. He wondered if there might be a legal remedy, for ship wakes cause much of the dike erosion.

Hicks responded that the Corps had built the dike and turned it over to the diking district, which was responsible for its maintenance. "There's local responsibility," she said.

"I agree, but there's enough responsibility to share," Brady said.

"To get anything done, you have to go with the fish (habitat funding program)," Cothren said. "The federal government has all the money."

"This isn't a solution we would have chosen, but it's a creative solution," Marsyla said.

The commissioners will formally act on the proposal on or before January 8.