Opinion ID: 3038513
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Channel Deepening and Dredged Material

Text: Disposal Project The Columbia River represents a major cargo gateway to the Pacific Northwest. The current depth of the Columbia River navigation channel is 40 feet. Over the past twenty years, larger vessels with “design drafts” exceeding this 40foot channel depth have carried an increasing share of Columbia River cargo tonnage. Because of the constraints of channel depth, these vessels must arrive “light-loaded.” According to the Corps, the current 40-foot channel constrains 70 percent of vessels involved in the transpacific container trade while a 43-foot depth would constrain only 30 percent. In 1989, Congress directed the Corps to assess the feasibility of deepening the Columbia River’s 40-foot navigation channel to a maximum of 43 feet in order to enhance shipping capacity. The current channel deepening project involves deepening the channel from Columbia River Mile 3 to Mile 106.5. The project also includes various ecosystem restoration actions.2 The “channel deepening project” also proposes three 1 NWEA also challenges a 1998 Dredged Material and Management Plan and Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement completed for an alternative project to maintain the current channel depth. Because we hold that the 2003 Final Supplemental Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement for the channel deepening project satisfied the National Environmental Policy Act, we do not reach the issue of the 1998 Dredged Material and Management Plan and Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. 2 The 2003 Final Supplemental Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement includes a plan to use dredged material from 10072 NORTHWEST ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCATES v. NMFS disposal sites to accommodate dredged material from both channel deepening and the Mouth of the Columbia River project, an independent dredging project. The first two areas are so-called Ocean Dredged Material Disposal Sites and include the Shallow Water Site,3 a dispersive site4 located within the littoral cell, and a Deep Water Site. The third area is the North Jetty Site, which is also dispersive and located within the littoral cell. Material dumped at the Shallow Water Site and the North Jetty Site stays in the littoral system, where it can accrete on coastlines to counteract erosion. Sediment placed at the Deep Water Site is considered “inert” because it is effectively removed from the sediment transport system. In August 1999, the Corps released a Final Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement for the Columbia River Channel Improvement Project.5 This severalhundred-page document contains numerous analyses of the proposed project and its alternatives, affected environment, channel deepening in restorative actions in the estuary. However, if the restoration features are not fully implemented, then the Corps will dispose of material in the ocean as described in the 1999 Final Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement. 3 The Shallow Water Site occupies an extended area that includes the former expanded Site E. The 1999 Final Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement refers to the older area, Site E. However, the Environmental Protection Agency had initiated preliminary rulemaking processes to replace Site E with the Shallow Water Site at the time the Corps issued the 2003 Final Supplemental Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement, and that document thus refers to the Shallow Water Site. Because these sites are materially different, this opinion will refer to either “Site E” or to the “Shallow Water Site” as appropriate. 4 Some amount of sediment placed at dispersive sites naturally migrates out of the site and settles elsewhere, thus increasing these sites’ dynamic capacity. 5 While the Corps is the Lead Agency responsible for issuing the Final Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement, the United States Environmental Protection Agency is listed as a Cooperating Agency. NORTHWEST ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCATES v. NMFS 10073 environmental impact, and implementation. It also includes plans to dispose of dredged material from the Mouth of the Columbia River project and from channel deepening in the North Jetty Site, Site E, and the Deep Water Site. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a “No Jeopardy” Biological Opinion on the project’s potential impact on certain Endangered Species Act-listed wildlife and plant species. After initially finding that the project would not jeopardize salmonids protected under the Endangered Species Act, NOAA fisheries withdrew its favorable Biological Opinion, citing new information on the project’s potential impact on bathymetry, river flow, and resuspension of toxins. Following this withdrawal, the States of Washington and Oregon denied certification of the project under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1341, and the Coastal Zone Management Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1451 et seq. They expressed concern over the project’s effects on sediment transport and Dungeness crab as well as its consistency with existing coastal programs. Consultations with state agencies followed, and the Corps began preparing a supplemental environmental impact statement to address those concerns. As part of that process, in February 2001, the Corps, NOAA Fisheries, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hired the nonprofit Sustainable Ecosystems Institute to review the channel deepening project’s potential environmental impacts. The SEI process involved project reviews by SEI staff members as well as by an independent panel of seven scientific experts. Throughout 2002, the Corps received and responded to numerous comments on the draft supplemental environmental impact statement, including comments from NWEA. Also in 2001, the Corps issued a Biological Assessment of fish and wildlife, which the subsequent Final Supplemental Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement incorporates as Exhibit H. Based on the Corps’ new studies, NOAA Fisheries changed its assessment of the project. In May 2002, it and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued final Biological Opinions concluding that the channel deepen10074 NORTHWEST ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCATES v. NMFS ing project would not adversely affect Endangered Species Act-protected species. In January 2003, the Corps issued its Final Supplemental Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement (“FSEIS”).6 The document spans several hundred pages and supplements, updates, and incorporates through reference the 1999 Final Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement. Among numerous additional studies, the 2003 FSEIS includes Exhibit J, which directly responds to Oregon and Washington’s concerns by analyzing the impact of channel deepening on sediment transport in the Columbia River. Based on the revised and expanded analyses, Washington and Oregon withdrew their objections and certified the project. On January 9, 2004, the Corps issued its Record of Decision approving the channel deepening project.