Snake River Sediment Plan & Wine Grape Growers Convention

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers districts in Seattle and Walla Walla are accepting public comment through December 18th on applications by port districts in Clarkston, Washington and Lewiston, Idaho to dredge sediment out of their berthing areas on the Snake River. Sediment has built up along the federal navigation channel impeding the continued function of the transportation system that sees 10 million tons of cargo each year. The Corps announced earlier this year that it would be postponing the Environmental Impact Statement Programmatic Sediment Management Plan, delaying dredging scheduled for this winter by a year or more. The EIS is expected to be finalized in the spring of 2014.

The WA Association of Wine Grape Growers Annual Meeting, Convention and Trade Show will be held February 5th through the 7th at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick. Vicky Scharlau, Executive Director of the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers, says that each year the Wine Grape Growers select a guest chef for the convention and this year they have chosen Dan Carr, co-owner of Visconti's Restaurant in Wenatchee and Leavenworth, both which have been named as Washington Grand Wine Award winners due to their extensive wine list highlighting Washington wines.

SCHARLAU: We have usually a five course meal and each course is matched with a different Washington wine from around the state. So it's really just a great deal of fun to have a different chef each year and to see their selections of not only menu, but how they match certain foods and pair those with of course fabulous Washington wines.

For more convention information visit wawgg.org.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.