Lawmakers: Water Resource Development Act will boost Columbia River projects, jobs and the economy

Washington’s federal lawmakers are celebrating a significant list of new Columbia River projects made possible by the 2024 Water Resource Development Act, which became law Saturday.

The national legislation authorizes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to improve a wide variety of U.S. waterways through research and construction. The Corps operates most of the major dams of the Columbia and Snake rivers, and controls many key aspects of the system’s management, including dredging the shipping channel and maintaining jetties at the river’s mouth.

“This bill is a big win for Southwest Washington,” Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said in a statement. “It helps support our ports and jobs by better maintaining the Columbia River channel.”

The Columbia’s deep water channel allows $31.2 billion in cargo to be transported, supporting 40,000 local jobs, according to industry trade group the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association. An additional 4.2 million tons of cargo is moved by barge on the Snake River, notably including wheat.

Cantwell highlighted seven specific items in the bill that will benefit the region. Those include:

• A new dredge for the river to replace the current 59-year-old ship.
• Support for the Corps to find a new site to dump dredged material.
• Permission for the Corps to dredge sediment behind a dam that holds back material that continues to flow from Mount St. Helens after its 1980 eruption.
• Confirmation that the Corps has responsibility for maintaining 233 pile dikes on the lower Columbia.
• New studies to address flooding near the Grays River in Wahkiakum County.
• Studies for ecosystem restoration projects along local rivers including the Wind and Klickitat.

U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, also highlighted the bill’s local impact, focusing on a small plot in Skamania County that will be transferred from the Corps to the Port of Skamania for development.

“This 1.6-acre plot of land is the kind of thing that can make an incredible difference in empowering our rural community, when roughly one half of 1 percent of Skamania County’s land is actually developable,” Perez said in a statement about the win she helped secure.

The price of the transfer is not yet known, a spokesperson for Perez said last month.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., also touted a local win, pointing to changes to a program that funds Native nations’ environmental restoration efforts that will make it easier for tribes to actually get the funding.

The changes include making the Corps’ tribal partnership program permanent, allowing the projects to happen outside of reservations and enabling organizations such as the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission to access the money.

“The Tribal Partnership Program has tremendous potential to help tribes in Washington state carry out critical ecological and habitat restoration projects that are important to their communities — but for too long, cumbersome restrictions have prevented tribes in our region from taking advantage of this important program,” Murray said in a statement.

The move was celebrated by Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and the Yakama Nation.

“These actions will help us protect and enhance critical water resources and better fulfill the federal Treaty and trust obligations to tribes while restoring Columbia Basin salmon and native fish,” said Gerald Lewis, chairman of the Yakama Nation Tribal Council in Murray’s statement.

The Corps’ Northwest division celebrated the passage broadly.

“Water resources development acts are important pieces of legislation, as they provide (the Corps) with congressional intent and authorization on how to address critical water resources issues across the nation,” Corps spokesman Tom Conning said. “It is important to note that (the) legislation does not provide appropriations, so studies, projects and other activities must compete for funding in future budgets, work plans or congressionally directed spending requests prior to moving forward.”

The legislation was signed into law by President Joe Biden on Saturday after it passed the House on Dec. 10 and the Senate on Dec. 18.

The act is reconsidered every other year. The last one authorized 25 new projects at a total cost of $50.4 billion, as well as more than 100 new studies, according to a Congressional Research Service report.