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Oregon, Washington give Ok for Corps to move on Columbia channel
06/25/03
Daily Shipping News
PORTLAND — Last Monday, the states of Oregon and Washington issued their approvals for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to proceed with the Columbia River Channel Deepening project. Both states issued conditional water quality certifications and conditional Coastal Zone Management Consistency concurrences. The approvals were the final regulatory hurdles the Corps faced before issuing a Record of Decision. By receiving conditional approval, the Corps must now look at the project again to understand the impact the conditions place on the agency’s construction activities. The evaluation will take several weeks. The Corps must now go back to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA-Fisheries to discuss how the states’ conditions on the project could affect the Corps’ ability to meet requirements laid out by the two federal fisheries agencies in their 2001 biological opinions. At the same time the Corps will evaluate the effects any changes will have on the cost of completing the project. Any changes to the project, to include updated costs, will be included in the final Record of Decision due out in August.
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