“FACTIONS CURSE OR DEFEND OREGON’S ‘CINDERELLA’ SLOUGH” by Don Holm, Oregonian, April 17, 1972
Eight-mile long Columbia Slough meanders across the North Portland flood plain from the vicinity of Columbia Edgewater Country Club, down along the St. Johns Peninusula, and into the Willamette River just above Kelly Point.
Along the way it flows (sometimes) past industrial firms, meat packing plants, city parks and sewage disposal plants, and considerable semi-natural environment. Most people don’t know it’s there. Since the 1948 flood it hasn’t caused much trouble, because at that time the upper end, which connected to the Columbia River, was filled in with an earthen plug.
During subsequent high water periods, the work of repairing dikes and keeping the water out of the inhabited sections of this flood plain, has been carried on by small drainage districts, charted by the state, with the power of taxation and condemnation. The drainage district staffs are composed mostly of influential and or public-minded citizens who live in the district, have business interests there, or both.
Wants it opened up
Most propety owners along the slough want it opened up and cleaned up. They want through small-boat traffic such as it used to be. They want it full of fish again, for anglers to enjoy, and bike paths and trails for nature-lovers, and wildlife areas set aside for field trips for school children, photographers, and bird watchers. But mainly they want this natural waterway saved and restored. They point to other areas of the contry, where environment conscious people are spending millions to dig such waterways. Here is one already dug.
The St. Johns Jaycees, which has taken on the Slough as a project, would like to save it to enhance their community. Hunting and fishing clubs would like to see it restored, and so would fish and game agencies, and conservation groups.
The Port of Portland, which is engaged in developing a massive industrial complex on the Peninsula, would like to plug it up, and possibly fill it in, because it doesn’t fit in with their plans for building factories, warehouses, and connecting spur lines. The County of Multonmah has been somewhat vague about the whole thing. Once they put up signs to keep fishermen out. It was said they wanted to fill it in to build a freeway interchange to enhance the port development. At other times, the commissioners denied this. One thing is sure, they are not on whatever side the property owners who want to save the Slough are.
Remains aloof
The City of Portland remains aloof. Most of it is outside its jurisdiction, say city officials.
It is a controversy which won’t lie down, to the consternation of those who want to close the Slough, and a delight to those who want to keep it open. During the past year and a half, this issue has generated much heat and very little light on the problem, and mostly it boils down to whose self-interest has the most right on its side: the industrial developers, the residents and property owners along it, the drainage districts, the political finaglers, or the people who might like to retain some natural enviornment before its too late.
To resolve this, a “task force” committee of city, state, county, Port, and other interests was appointed, with the objective of “studying” the Slough and making a report in June.
Meanwhile, an enviromental impact study was made by an outside agency, and the results generally were that the Slough was worth saving from that standpoint.
From time to time, I have made personal inspection tours up the Slough by boat, usually accompanied by some interested persons, and reported them here. The other day, members of Peninsula Number 1 drainage district (call them “Dike 1” or “Pen 1”) invited me to a luncheon meeting to set me straight on some facts, which they indicated I mangled severely.
So I met with four earnest gentlemen from Pen 1, including the supervisor, Ray Graap; Chairman Andy Fazio; Ke Gustin, a motel operator; and Lt. Col. Russell L. Ostermeire, engineering consultant and an expert with wide experience in flood control.
For openers, at least two of these gentlemen, impressed upon me rather explosively how much they hated “this damn Slough” But at the same time they all assured me they liked ducks, and rabbits, and other wildlife, and had no objection to fishing. The colonel assured me that in all his long career he could think of nothing better to do about the Slough, under the present circumstances, than to fill it in.
Wants protection
Mr. Fazio and Mr. Gustin, who have lived with and fought the flood problem since before World War I, had just about had it. Mr. Graap, who is a comparative new comer of only 20 years or so, but who owns an expensive home in the district, said all they wanted to do was protect their homes and businesses.
I had a great deal of compassion for Mr. Fazio, who has 200 or so acres of truck farm, and whose pickle factory floated away in the 1964 Christmas floods. Being a long time pickle aficionado, it literally pained me when he related how during that flood, hundreds of barrels of prime, first class pickles went on down the Columbia to Astoria where pickles are not appreciated, aspecially as flotsam and jetsam.
They warned that the dikes in the area had not been rebuilt since the disastrous Vanport Flood of 1948, that they could not stand continued high water levels, and this year’s runoff has presented another potential disater. The worst thing that could happen, they said, was to unplug the upper end. Boats couldn’t use it anyway, because the mouth silted up.
Moreover, they were frustrated. The district has only 1,300 acres and about 600 people and 50 businesses. How can you tax them anymore. Worse yet, their hands are tied and they can’t fix the dikes properly because they can’t get the right-of-way from some landowers who are holding out for a big “payoff.’
If, I asked, someone could wave a magic wand and eliminate their flood worries, along with their little district, would they be happy with the Slough. Of course, they agreed.
I then went around to the Corps of Engineers and asked what would have to be done to save the Slough and still eliminate the flood threat.
Assistance authorized
First I was told the Flood Control Act of 1950 authorizes federal assistance. In the case of Columbia Slough and the drainage districts, where the dikes haven’t been rebuilt since 1918, the Engineers had drawn up plans for rebuilding dikes, which would eliminate the objections to Columbia Slough, and the money had been authorized. The local districts had failed to cooperate by doing their part – namely getting rights-of-way and raising part of the funds through taxation. A spokesman pointed out that the districts have both the power of condemnation and taxation, but have not used this to implement the federal program.
If the upper end were unplugged would this endanger the dikes? Not if the dikes were rebuilt as the plans called for. Would the mouth silt up so small boats could not use the Slough? Not if a short training jetty were built. Would there be a natural flow through the Slough to “scour” it out? Yes, because the upper level at the Columbia is two to three feet higher than the outlet in the Willamette. Would the back pressure form the Willamette, as presently is the case, endanger the dikes if the upper end were unplugged? He didn’t see how.
In other words, by implementing the Corps of Engineers’ plans to rebuild the dikes, the flood threat could be eliminated, and the Columbia Slough flushed out and made into a vital natrual waterway again – which eliminates the arguments of the drainage districts, but not the opposition of the industrial developers at Rivergate.
