Lower Columbia River Channel Deepening update

Farm and Ranch December 16, 2009 The project to deepen the Lower Columbia River Navigation Channel by three feet to a depth of 43 feet should be complete no later than a year from now. Kristin Meira with the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association says 26.6 million dollars in stimulus funding is enough to complete the project.

Meira: “Funding is in place. It has been secured. There is no more funding to request. Now it is just a matter of the Corps of Engineers to finish removing some of the rock near St. Helens and some cobbled rock near Longview and we will have our 43 foot channel.”

According to the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association the deeper channel will allow an additional six thousand tons of wheat, worth one million dollars, to be loaded in each bulk vessel and an additional six thousand tons of cargo.  Such as, exported frozen potatoes or vegetables to be handled by each container ship.

Meira says after channel deepening is complete there is another project to work on.

Meira: “The next major project on the Lower Columbia River are the jetties that protect the entrance to the mouth of the Columbia. Those jetties have been taking a beating for decades from severe winter storms that roll in on off the Pacific. They require major maintenance, and that is the next major project we will be looking to fund off into the future.”

Up river, an extended closure of the river transportation system is scheduled in December of 2010-for 14 to 16 weeks for major repairs at several locks on the Columbia-Snake River system.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.

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