Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 17, 2018)
A6 THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2018 OPINION editor@dailyastorian.com KARI BORGEN Publisher JIM VAN NOSTRAND Editor JEREMY FELDMAN Circulation Manager Founded in 1873 JOHN D. BRUIJN Production Manager CARL EARL Systems Manager SOUTHERN EXPOSURE How Seaside won Corps permit for school construction W Photos by R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian School district construction oversight committee members inspect the campus building site. ‘IT’S IMPORTANT WE OPEN THE SCHOOL AND BE READY TO MOVE IN 2020.’ Jim Henry | project manager Construction workers at the Seaside campus. Heavy rains test mitigation measures at the campus. hen the Army Corps of Engineers tal easement on undeveloped property behind issued a permit for water work in the district bus barn on U.S. Highway 101 near September for the Seaside School the Neawanna River. A little more than a quar- District’s campus construction in the Southeast ter-acre will be protected by deed restriction Hills, offi cials and construction crews issued a to protect river habitat behind the bus barn on collective sigh. Neawanna Road. Other land will be cleared With labor, equipment and a schedule all but of knotweed and other invasive species and written in stone, Corps approval was the trig- deeded as a conservation area in perpetuity. ger for a full push to meet the fall 2020 opening “We’re not doing any work that would be on date for students at the new campus. the tidal area,” Henry said. “We’ll be working Pristine water comes down from the hills from the top of the bank inward.” past the campus and into the Neawanna River. The district’s mitigation proposal includes While the Department of State Lands a combination of stream enhancement at deemed wetland impacts as “minimal ... to Coho and China creeks — which feed into the intermittent, non-fi sh bearing headwater Neawanna River — and wetlands protections to streams,” in a separate approval delivered in meet regulatory concerns. early July, the Corps did not sign off on To complete the work for the Corps, the plan, sending the school district back the district will need a survey for the to the drawing board. easement agreement, an invasive spe- The school district’s fi rst application cies removal plan, an approved species proposed permanent placement of soil, planting plan and an erosion control plan concrete and stone within a wetland and to have in place while the work is being more than 2,000 linear feet of stream done, Henry said. “considered essential fi sh habitat.” The district will document precipita- R.J. Corps engineers failed to sign off on tion and photographs of the outfall areas MARX the application, pressing the school dis- to present to the Corps, the Department trict to come up with another solution. of State Lands and the Department of To meet Corps concerns, the district Fish and Wildlife. “swapped” an equal amount of stream area What’s ahead off-site. Hoffman Construction will implement the The Corps signed off on the plan in mitigation work, both onsite and offsite. The mid-September. The permit came in two days contractor will install erosion control mea- after the in-water work deadline, so drainage sures to protect drainages and start demolition, work won’t take place until next summer. including stump removal and clearing. Because of the delay, Project Manager Jim Once the base rough grading is complete, Henry said, “this is going to be a busy site.” the contractor will begin site grading to con- What’s in the permit? struct the access roadway and water quality Known by the weighty title “Compensatory improvements. Standard erosion control mea- Stream Wetland Mitigation Plan,” the docu- sures will be in place to protect the adjacent ment — acquired by the Seaside Signal after a waterways. freedom of information request — details how Plantings will be installed through March, the district will work with the federal govern- including bulbs, trees, shrubs and temporary ment to satisfy Corps requirements. irrigation. It may not be the most enticing opening, but Meanwhile, at the state level, the Depart- it’s worth about $100 million to the school dis- ment of State Lands — which also monitors trict and its taxpayers: “You are authorized to water and runoff — is in the middle of rules perform work in accordance with the terms and changes regarding their mitigation policy. conditions specifi ed below.” These changes could reduce confl icts in fi nd- What follows is about 200 pages of NWP- ings when reviewed by multiple agencies. 2018-142, the joint permit application famil- While the Corps and Department of State iarly known as “the JPA,” with enough infor- Lands have independent authority in Oregon mation to fi ll a couple of college textbooks. with distinct decision-making and rule-mak- The school district’s mitigation plan uses a ing processes, both agencies coordinate to help “combination of on-site, in-kind and off-site, ensure a “timely and transparent overall regu- out-of-kind compensatory mitigation to off- latory process,” according to the department’s set project impacts,” according to the permit Ali Hansen. application. Revised state rules will not take effect until Mitigation work at Seaside Heights will take Feb. 1 at the earliest; the district’s new plan is place east and northeast of the Heights parking not subject to re-review by the state, Hansen lot, where a small ditch is being improved and said. Permits issued prior to then, or complete widened with appropriate wetlands plantings. applications received prior to then, are not sub- North of the proposed sports fi elds is a ject to the new rules. stormwater management system to handle the Up next, a status report must be submitted drains under the sports fi eld improvement area, to the Army Corps by Dec. 15 and mitigation channeling it through a sediment and settling monitoring plan submitted within a year. swale before allowing the stormwater to run off Monitoring reports will submitted every into the China Creek tributary. year for fi ve years, ending Sept. 19, 2023. The system is designed to drain about the “It’s important we open the school and be same area of ground at a level of turbidity at ready to move in 2020,” Henry said. least 90 percent as clean as water historically R.J. Marx is editor of the Seaside Signal drained to the tributary prior to the work. and Cannon Beach Gazette, and covers South Offsite measures include an environmen- County for The Daily Astorian. Crane lifts rebar and other material onto the site.
