Project May Tame Last Free-Flowing Stretch of the Columbia River

The Columbia River rolls lazily through the desert of central Washington, nourishing crops and wildlife in what otherwise would be a wasteland of sagebrush and barren hills.

The river, which once roared through deep gorges, was immortalized in Woody Guthrie’s Depression-era song “Roll On, Columbia”:

Green Douglas fir where the waters cut through,

Down her wild mountains and canyons she flew,

Canadian North-west to the ocean so blue,

It’s roll on, Columbia, roll on!

But after the construction of more than a dozen dams in 51 years, the Columbia has rolled nearly to a standstill. For much of its 1,214 miles, the river is a series of dams and slackwater reservoirs, providing electricity, irrigation and flood control for Washington, Oregon and Canada.

The United States claims one last free-flowing stretch--the 55-mile Hanford Reach--and it, too, is facing major development.

Plan for Barge Traffic

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is proposing a $180-million project to open the river to barge traffic all the way to Wenatchee, so that logs, wheat and apples from the state’s interior can be floated to Pacific Ocean ports.

The plan calls for dredging part of the river and building giant lifts over three dams to allow navigation between Richland and Wenatchee.

Opponents say the dredging would forever ruin valuable fish and wildlife habitat, archeological sites and the last vestige of natural river flow.

Washington’s congressional delegation has introduced legislation to protect the area.

The reach “is one of the only areas where spawning habitats remain undisturbed, nesting areas abound and majestic cliffs lining the river are mirrored in its quiet, deep calm,” said Sen. Daniel J. Evans (R-Wash.).

Impact on Wildlife

“We’re telling them don’t go ahead with these ill-conceived plans until we know the impact on spawning and recreation, the most important use of the river,” said Republican Rep. Sid Morrison, whose district includes the area.

Under the bill, the Department of the Interior would protect the Hanford Reach for eight years until a study determines whether to permanently preserve the stretch under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

The bill has already cleared the Senate but Morrison has delayed House action while negotiations continue to address concerns of the U.S. Department of Energy.

That agency operates the Hanford nuclear reservation, a sprawling plutonium-production site that straddles the river. The Energy Department is worried that the study could hamper Hanford operations, said Terry Seeley, a legislative aide to Morrison.

There lies the irony of the “wild and scenic” designation: as the Columbia flows past nine federal nuclear reactors, no one would call the view pastoral.

Wire Fences, Guard Towers

The huge, eerie reactors, technological marvels in their time, produced much of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal. The slow-moving river creeps past the hulking reactors, with pumping stations, razor-wire fences and guard towers casting shadows over the water.

Eight are closed permanently. The newest, the N Reactor, which was placed on “cold standby” earlier this year because the federal government no longer needed the plutonium, stands closest to the river, a brooding presence amid the jumping fish, herons and deer.

Much of the shore is off-limits to recreational users because the federal government wanted a buffer zone around its reactors.

The Hanford Reach runs from Priest Rapids Dam, south of Mattawa, to the reservoir of McNary Dam just north of Richland.

The biggest objections to the dredging are that the movement of half a million cubic yards of soil would destroy some of the last wild runs of Chinook salmon, which battle their way upriver to spawn.

Salmon Spawning Area

“That’s one of the few or perhaps the only remaining natural spawning area in that entire river system below Grand Coulee (dam) that salmon and steelhead can get to,” said Jerry Neal, deputy director the state Department of Wildlife.

The Army Corps of Engineers has proposed building an artificial salmon spawning channel to compensate for areas lost to dredging. But opponents say that would not work.

“Artificial spawning channels just don’t provide the quantity and quality of reproduction that the natural free-flowing river provides,” Neal said. “The technology hasn’t been that well-perfected.”

The dredging proposal has also run into stiff fiscal opposition.

The cost-benefit ratio for the project currently stands at just 80 cents in benefits for every dollar spent, says George Sellar, manager of water resources for the Port of Chelan County in Wenatchee, which has been pushing the plan since the 1950s.

The port and the Army are now studying the plan to try to make it economically stronger.

For instance, some people believe that large quantities of apples could not be moved by barge because of the length of the trip, but others say using refrigerated containers would keep them fresh, Sellar said.

The port hopes to save up to 40% in transportation costs compared to rail or trucking. “One barge will move the equivalent of 50 to 60 trucks,” Sellar said.