OPINION
4A
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2016
Assessing the environmental
legacy of a bad idea
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Bloodshed
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would be too much opposition and
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For many poor Americans,
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Neal Maine/For EO Media Group
Changes in the estuary as a result of a stalled development in the 1960s remains evident today.
SOUTHERN
EXPOSURE
B Y
R.J.
M ARX
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
N
eal Maine still remembers
the battle over development
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A sand berm built by developers
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Neal Maine/For EO Media Group
Rock fill remains on the banks of the Necanicum.
By that time, land use rules
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estuaries to man and wildlife, and
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that was put there in 1976,” Maine
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from the city in 1965 and called for
175 homes with streets, sewers and
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above the Necanicum estuary over
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There was a different mindset
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scrape the sand off the beach, to
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Ultimately, the developers piled
up 370,000 cubic yards of sand on
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When a storm washed some of
that away, the builders put more
riprap on the ocean side to prevent
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able to accomplish what opponents
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heavy equipment operators and the
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demanded that the fill be removed
and the firm forced to pay a penalty
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Lessons learned?
EO Media Group
The project was first proposed in
the 1960s.
EO Media Group
Clam diggers played a unique
environmental role in the contro-
versy.
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sion to “require the removal of as
much of the riprap as will permit
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were required to add additional
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to the nearby homes, the developer
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tive Association and members of the
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whom opposed the developer’s plan
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As a berm created by fill from
the ’60s crumbles in the estuary’s
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little pieces of this history,” Maine
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will remain and channels were
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over tidelands, which are the most
productive in the world,” Maine
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would have been the estuary that it
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“The estuary is one of only 17
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between then and now, and issues
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really hear the Warrenton people
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tifiable review process, so 30 years
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did we do?’
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R.J. Marx is The Daily Astori-
an’s South County reporter and
editor of the Seaside Signal and
Cannon Beach Gazette.