B1
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2021
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2021 • B1
WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2011
M
embers of Congress are pushing to stop the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration from
approving genetically engineered salmon,
saying not enough is known about a fi sh they say could
harm fi shery businesses in coastal states.
It appeared last year that the FDA might approve the
engineered salmon quickly. But the congressional push
back and a lack of action by the FDA could mean the
fi sh won’t be on the nation’s dinner tables any time soon.
The fi sh, which grows twice as fast as the conven-
tional variety, is engineered by AquaBounty, a Massa-
chusetts-based company, but not yet allowed on the mar-
ket. The company’s application has been pending for
more than 15 years. If the agency approves it, it would
be the fi rst time the government allows such modifi ed
animals to be marketed for people to eat.
Congressional opposition to the engineered fi sh is
led by members of the Alaska delegation. They see the
modifi ed salmon as a threat to the state’s wild salmon
industry.
A tricked out Ford Thunderbird at the 2011 Wheels ‘N’ Waves car show in Seaside.
became entangled in the nets of gillnetters in the Colum-
bia River this morning, and almost sunk one vessel.
The birds, believed to be diving for herring, got into
the nets and could not escape, forcing several vessels to
return to port to try to free them. Many were dead before
they could be freed.
The gillnet boat Retaw, skippered by Larry Schaub,
of Astoria, was in danger of sinking from the weight of
hundreds of birds in his net, so was towed to the Ham-
mond Mooring Basin by a 40-foot utility boat from the
Cape Disappointment U.S. Coast Guard station.
SEASIDE — You couldn’t put the brakes on
family fun this weekend.
Thousands of car-jocks, trailer queens,
motor mouths and gearheads parked in down-
town Seaside to talk shop at the 13th annual
Wheels ‘N’ Waves classic car show.
The streets of Broadway and Columbia, and
the city parking lot outside the Seaside Civic
and Convention Center, were packed bumper-
to-bumper with more than 400 sleek hot-rods
and other streamlined specimens of pre-1963
automotive history.
McGOWAN, Wash. — The third time’s the charm for
the Middle Village — Station Camp site on U.S. High-
way 101 across from the Astoria Bridge.
Construction is underway on turn lanes and widening
of the highway for the entrance to the newest piece of
the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. That part
of the project should take about 10 days, said Jim Sayce,
project manager and liaison between the Washington
State Historical Society and the National Park Service.
Sayce said construction of the interior of the park
should wind up in February. “When the interpretive
work is complete, it will bring to the public what some
call the most important historic site on the lower Colum-
bia River,” he said.
Whether you’re turning on your faucet in
the kitchen of your home, or turning on your
sprinkler to water the garden in Astoria, sel-
dom would you think twice about where the
water is coming from.
But members of the City Council found out
how important that water source is one recent
morning with a tour of the Bear Creek w ater-
shed, located 12 miles east of Astoria in Svensen.
“I call it a gem,” said Astoria Public Works
Director Ken Cook. “The city has just a total
gem of a resource here. And this is how the city
gets its water.”
Seven communities get their water from the
Bear Creek w atershed, including Burnside,
John Day and Fernhill. They use the three lakes
on the city’s property — Main Lake, holding
200 million gallons of water; Middle Lake,
higher up and feeding the Main lake with its 52
million gallons; and Wickiup Lake, with 59 mil-
lion gallons.
“Basically, it’s like a big bowl, and it all
drains down to here, the dam,” Cook said.
The Astoria Fire Department arranged for this giant
American fl ag to be fl own above 30th Street and Marine
Drive near Safeway in 2011 to honor the lives lost in the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Remedial action must be taken to reduce
nitrogen supersaturation or up to 90% of the
salmon and steelhead run in the Columbia
River b asin could be lost in the next three years,
a federal offi cial said Tuesday.
Any new dam in the basin must include ade-
quate control of nitrogen supersaturation, said
James Agee, acting regional administrator of
the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
In an interview with The Oregonian, Agee
also said these controls are necessary at Lower
Granite Dam, now under construction, before
the lower Snake River project is completed.
Nitrogen supersaturation results when nitro-
gen from the air is trapped by the water as it
spills over the dams. Migrating salmon absorb
the nitrogen in their blood and when they sur-
face to pass over a dam or fi shway they suff er
an often fatal condition.
75 years ago — 1946
Jim McNeeley tackles a mountain of birds that were
entangled in the nets of Columbia River gillnetters in 1971.
School resumed for the fall term in Astoria schools
Monday, with 1,369 registered in the public schools and
approximately 200 registered at Star of the Sea school.
A.C. Hampton, city school superintendent, said that
a noon registration check showed 1,027 pupils in the
grades and 342 in the high school. The total of 1,369
was 27 more than the 1,342 registered on the fi rst day
last fall. All the gain was registered in Lewis and Clark
junior high.
Fall salmon deliveries to Astoria canneries
during the fi rst four days of the season totaled
1.3 million pounds, for which fi shermen were
paid $143,016.82.
50 years ago — 1971
Bumble Bee Seafoods cannery workers reported late to
work due to picketing in 1971.
Members of the Columbia River Fishermen’s Pro-
tective Union continued to meet this morning, fi rst for
a “vote meeting” held at 10 a.m. at the Labor Temple,
then a brief meeting between some fi shermen and Bum-
ble Bee Seafoods offi cials followed by a noon meeting
of the union’s price committee and Bumble Bee.
“We are standing fi rm on our demand for more than
the 22 cents per pound salmon price off ered by the major
canneries,” said one commercial fi shermen spokesman.
He added that the union had received some 40 to 50 new
members at the morning meeting and now has a total
membership of more than 400 people.
The spokesman said this morning’s vote was unani-
mous to hold out against the low price off ers. The fi sh-
ermen are asking 25 cents for silvers and 28 cents for
Chinook.
Six students, rolling a barrel from San Fran-
cisco to Tumwater, Washington, to raise money
for muscular dystrophy research, got a brief
respite Monday when they crossed the Astoria
Bridge — by car.
The bridge is not open to foot traffi c, and so
the six students rode across the 4.1 mile span.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of migratory birds
Port of Astoria offi cials and aviation supporters are
initiating moves to halt dismantling of the radio range
equipment maintained at the Astoria naval air station
during the war years.
Information was obtained Monday that the U.S.
N avy and Civil Aeronautics Administration had begun
dismantling the range station, located on Clatsop Spit,
as a result of discontinuance of Navy funds which had
supported operation of the station by the aeronautics
administration.
The station is an aviation beacon aiding navigation
of aircraft to and from the Astoria airport, to which the
Port of Astoria recently obtained access on a revocable
permit basis.
All Astoria meat markets today reported
that the meat shortage will become acute in a
few days.
Pork is non-existent, the butchers said. One
shop reported receiving its ration of meats from
a Portland packing house, but complained that
the amount shipped was so small he did not
know what to do with it. The beef supply is low.
Smoked meats are scarce.
Beef received here by several shops during
the past few days has been freshly killed, but it
had to be sold as fast as it was cut up.
Swift in Astoria said that its storage was
cleaned out of beef, pork, smoked meats and
was not oversupplied in sausage. Meat items
will be short for some time, the butchers pre-
dicted, since nothing on hoofs is headed for the
big slaughter houses.
The s eamen’s union in Portland has agreed to move
ships scheduled to enter the maritime commission
reserve fl eet here from Portland to Astoria, according
to word received by Captain E.E. Thorne, reserve fl eet
superintendent. Thorne said about 30 ships are undergo-
ing preliminary stripping in Portland now preparatory to
their transfer.
The Gray Memorial Chapel and grounds on
Clatsop Plains was the scene of a historic gath-
ering Thursday afternoon and evening with the
chapel crowded to capacity Thursday night for
the principal feature of the 100th anniversary
celebration of the founding of the old Presbyte-
rian church society.
The Bear Creek Dam in 2011.
Clearing of ground was well underway today on Asto-
ria’s fi rst major postwar residential construction project,
undertaken by the newly-formed Astoria Builders on a
six block tract between West Lexington and West Niag-
ara in Tapiola Park.