Blog post by Miles Johnson, Riverkeeper’s Clean Water Attorney—
Shallow-water and shoreline habitat in the lower Columbia River and Estuary is critically important for young salmon and steelhead. This habitat is where young fish feed, grow, and migrate to the ocean. Unfortunately, a century of dock building, dredging, and construction on the Columbia River’s shorelines and floodplains has severely damaged this habitat, and hurt the Columbia River’s salmon runs.
Riverkeeper works to reclaim this damaged habitat, and to prevent ill-advised construction projects from further harming endangered salmon and steelhead. Right now, a company called Columbia River Carbonates is proposing a major new dock in the Columbia River near Woodland, Washington. The project would add 46 new pilings and 7,800 square feet of over-water structure in shallow-water habitat, and destroy more than 25,000 square feet of off-channel salmon habitat and 3.9 acres of riverside cottonwood forest.
Because of the proposed dock’s serious impacts to the Columbia and its endangered salmon and steelhead, Riverkeeper is asking Cowlitz County to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement about the dock project. A thorough environmental review will help state and federal agencies decide whether to permit the dock construction and what kind of mitigation is necessary.
Read Riverkeeper’s full comments and stay tuned for updates about this project.
