3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2017
Drainage tunnel near Mount St. Helens US to enter into
Columbia River Treaty
needs work to counteract flood risk
renegotiation in 2018
Most serious
threat is at
Spirit Lake
By EMILY SCHWING
Oregon Public
Broadcasting
By HAL BERNTON
Seattle Times
Damian Mulinix/For EO Media Group
Long Beach, Washington, fourth graders view a large tree trunk left behind during the
Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980 at the Johnston Ridge Observatory during their class
trip this year.
Since then, the nearly
1.6-mile-long tunnel has been
subjected to repeated spot
repairs. The most recent effort
completed in March 2016
shored up a 30-foot section
that had narrowed significantly
due to ground pressures.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers has worked
on a long-term plan to limit
sediments flowing into the
Toutle, Cowlitz and Columbia.
The Corps built the sed-
iment retention structure,
which resembles a dam, across
the North Fork of the Toutle.
In 2012 the spillway of the
structure was raised by 7 feet,
and it could be raised again in
the future, according to Jeffrey
Henon, a Corps spokesman in
Portland.
The academies scien-
tists note that new engineer-
ing projects have ripple effects
throughout the drainage. While
public safety remains a key
concern, they say that other
things should be considered,
such as fisheries restoration
and the intent of congressional
legislation “to allow . geologic
forces and ecological succes-
sion to continue substantially
unimpeded” in the 110,000-
acre Mount St. Helens Volca-
nic National Monument.
The scientists also sug-
gest re-examining the mind-
set behind the human inter-
vention. In the early years after
the eruption, the big push was
to try to keep as much sedi-
ment as possible from mov-
ing downstream. But they said
this material — sooner or later
— would make its way down-
stream. So the focus might
shift to trying to engineer an
orderly and safe downstream
movement of that material.
Some of the biggest deci-
sions involve Spirit Lake and
the future of the tunnel, which
has an expected life span of
about 50 years unless major
renovations — costing tens of
millions of dollars — are made.
The U.S. Forest Service
participated in an emergency
planning exercise in Cowlitz
County this past spring that
simulated flooding from Spirit
Lake.
In the meantime, the Forest
Service’s work at Spirit Lake
includes the installation of a
structure to keep floating logs
away from the tunnel outlet as
well as sensors to help moni-
tor flows.
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6 PM
By KEITH RIDLER
Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — Author-
ities have released recov-
ery plans for federally pro-
tected Snake River Chinook
salmon and steelhead with
the goal of making sure each
species is self-sustaining in
the wild.
The plans released today
by National Oceanic and
Atmospheric
Adminis-
tration Fisheries include
spring and summer Chi-
nook, fall Chinook and
steelhead. Authorities listed
the three runs as threatened
in the 1990s.
Strategies in the 366-
page fall Chinook plan
include reintroducing them
above Idaho Power’s Hells
Canyon Complex of hydro-
electric dams.
The 284-page recovery
plan for spring and sum-
mer Chinook and steel-
head include protecting
existing tributary habi-
tat and restoring degraded
habitat.
Salmon and steelhead
are important as both a
commercial and sport fish-
ery, and are also important
to tribes in the region that
hold treaty rights concern-
ing salmon and steelhead.
Bethany Lutheran Church
will sponsor a
Live Nativity
Saturday
December 16
5-7 PM
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
On the Bethany Church lawn, across from Safeway
BETHANY FREE LUTHERAN CHURCH
451 34 TH STREET ∙ ASTORIA
503.325.2925
SCHEDULE
T UESDAY E VENING
L
Snake River salmon and
steelhead plan released
Acting out the birth of Jesus in a stable with animals
Tiffany Ann Phillips
Dec. 12, 1980
Jan. 4, 1998
THE DAILY
ASTORIAN
A
The Forest Service also
is considering opening up a
route for all-terrain vehicles to
reach Spirit Lake to assist with
maintenance. That proposal
has drawn concern from some
research scientists who say
it could disturb their studies
within a sensitive area known
as the Pumice Plain.
Carri LeRoy, a freshwa-
ter ecologist at The Evergreen
State College, says the new
route could seriously disrupt
work there by her and other
researchers.
“I am incredibly disap-
pointed to learn that the Forest
Service . is continuing to push
for motorized traffic across the
Pumice Plain,” LeRoy wrote
in an October letter to the
agency. Her research examines
the formation of streams in the
post-eruption landscape, and
she urged the Forest Service to
consider an alternative route to
the lake.
Chris Strebig, the Spirit
Lake project manager, said no
final decision has been made
on the motorized route.
You have left footprints
in many lives...
We miss your laughter
and your big heart.
We love you!
N36190DA
SEATTLE — Long-term
strategies are needed to deal
with the risks of mudflows
and flooding left behind by the
1980 Mount St. Helens erup-
tion, according to a report by
the National Academies of
Sciences, Engineering and
Medicine.
The most serious threat is
at Spirit Lake, which the vol-
cano left plugged by an unsta-
ble mass of debris that — if it
gave way — would threaten
some 50,000 southwest Wash-
ington residents who live
downstream.
A drainage tunnel com-
pleted in 1985 reduces the
chance that the makeshift
dam could fail. But the report
found that the aging structure
— despite repeated repairs —
“is not operating optimally,”
and is still in need of expen-
sive maintenance.
The scientists who put
together the report suggest
future engineering options,
such as building a second tun-
nel, cutting a spillway through
the debris dam or finding a
way to drain the lake. They
propose a collaborative effort
that brings together federal
and state agencies, the Cowlitz
Tribe, downstream communi-
ties and others.
The 1980 eruption killed
57 people when it blew away
the top of the mountain and
unleashed a massive avalanche
of debris — the largest in
recorded history. The resculpt-
ing of the landscape prompted
a $1 billion, decadelong effort
to deal with the aftermath of
the eruption.
The work included mas-
sive dredging and construction
— on the North Fork of the
Toutle River — of a sediment
retention structure to slow the
downstream movement of
sediment.
It also involved high-stakes
work at Spirit Lake.
The eruption raised the
water level by 210 feet and
blocked its natural outlet with
a mix of ash, earth, rock and
other materials. With no way
to drain, the water level could
climb still higher. This would
increase the chance of a breach
of the debris dam, a potentially
cataclysmic event that could
send some 314,000 acre-feet
of water and 2.4 billion cubic-
yards of sediment surging
down the Toutle, Cowlitz and
Columbia rivers.
In 1982, a temporary
pumping station was installed
to lower water levels. This was
followed by construction of
the tunnel to divert water into
South Coldwater Creek.
The U.S. Department of
State and the Canadian gov-
ernment have announced that
formal renegotiation of the
Columbia River Treaty will
begin in early 2018.
Fish, electric rates and
flood protection are all part
of the 53-year-old interna-
tional treaty between the
U.S. and Canada.
The headwaters of the
Columbia are in Canada,
and that country controls
how much water is released
downstream and when.
In exchange for smooth-
ing hydropower operations
across the border, Northwest
American electricity con-
sumers pay Canada hundreds
of millions of dollars annu-
ally, under a provision in the
treaty.
In November, congressio-
nal members from Oregon
and Washington state sent a
letter to David McNaughton,
the Canadian ambassador
in Washington, D.C. They
argued those payments are
too high.
Separately, tribes and
environmental groups are
looking for an update to the
treaty that includes goals for
restoring salmon runs above
the Grand Coulee Dam.
Interested parties in the
Northwest have been asking
for a renegotiation for four
years. The current Colum-
bia River Treaty was ratified
in 1964.
Evening listings
TUESDAY
D ECEMBER 12
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