Columbia River “sand plan” available for public review

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Columbia River ports are asking for public comment on the draft plan to place millions of cubic yards of clean, Columbia River sediment in multiple Oregon and Washington locations.

This “sand plan” is a combined draft Dredged Material Management Plan (DMMP) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that ensures sufficient capacity to place sediment dredged from the Lower Columbia River Federal Navigation Channel (LCRFNC) for at least the next 20 years.

Commercial shippers rely on the 43-foot-deep, 600-foot-wide LCRFNC to transport goods nationally and internationally, and the Columbia River is ranked number one in the U.S. for wheat exports and is the third largest exporter of grain in the world.

“This federal navigation channel is incredibly important to the region,” said Dan Robledo, project manager. “Each year, it moves over 50 million tons of international cargo worth $31.2 billion.”

USACE and the sponsor ports (Port of Longview, Washington; Port of Kalama, Washington; Port of Woodland, Washington; Port of Vancouver USA, Washington; and the Port of Portland, Oregon) began the public comment period for the DMMP-EIS in 2017 and are ready for the public to comment on the draft plan.