05/18/05 Dredging up answers to concerns, Part Two

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has made available its latest draft Environmental Impact Statement on proposed dredging of the Lower Snake River to make the waterway fourteen feet for safe navigation of barges through to the Port of Lewiston Idaho. And the Corps, required by federal order of Congress to maintain the Lower Snake for navigation, has reached a critical juncture, as environmentalists have used court orders to halt dredging since 1999. That has resulted in sediment build up that is becoming more impossible for barges to travel on the waterway. But Jack Sands, who is the Corps' Project Manager for Sediment Management Activity, says the E.I.S. addresses the main reason dredging has been halted & destroying critical habitat for spawning of endangered and threatened salmon and steelhead species. In fact, the plan, in his opinion, would actually benefit such species recovery in the longterm. SANDS: We'd take that material downstream, and we would use an in-water disposal method and dump the material out of a bottom dump barge into the river, so that it would build up along the existing underwater surface, and then shape that into a shallow, gently sloping area with a sandy substrate that would provide a high quality habitat for rearing of juveniles as they're out migrating throughout the system. Sands says the gentle slope made of cleared sediment would make it easier for fish to spawn and to migrate compared to the high walls and slopes currently found along the Lower Snake. So what do many in the environmental community think about such a plan? SANDS: This proposal has actually been part of the previous proposals that we've put forth, and there are some concerns in the environmental community mostly dealing with the idea that they are not convinced that our proposed disposal area will attract large enough numbers of juveniles to really make a significant difference within the environment out there. And so there is most likely expected to again be opposition, in the form of a court challenge, from conservation and environmental groups. The goal of the Corps, barring another delay in dredging from a court order, is to begin dredging in mid December, working through February.