“Straub Hits Closure Of Slough” – The Oregon Journal, Saturday, July 1, 1972

State Treasurer Robert Straub voiced vigorous opposition Friday to any possible closure of the Columbia Slough to navigation.

Appearing at a meeting of the Columbia Slough Environmental Improvement Task Force, Straub, who is a member of the State Land Board, said the waterway should not be closed from its “rightful link” in water commerce.

Closure of the slough to navigation of through boat traffic would be the result if a proposal by the Port of Portland for placing a permanent plug across the slough is carried out.

Whether the slough should be plugged permanently is one of the major questions confronting the task force and other agencies responsible for a decision.

Another meeting is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. July 14 at the Port of Portland offices in the Lloyd Building.

Straub said the loss of navigable waterway in the slough would be “economically wasteful.”

The Task Force was formed in January to help the Corps of Army Engineers study flood control and develop a planned program for future use of the slough.

James Bigelow, president of the Columbia Slough Development Corp., proposed Friday that a 1950 congressional authorization for widening, deepening and completion of a turning basin on the lower slough be implemented. Bigelow also called for unplugging the Slough at the mouth at the Columbia River end hereby “vastly enhancing its attractiveness as a recreation stream.”

He also proposed dredging to deepen Smith and Bybee Lakes in the slough area to provide broad dikes along the north bank of the slough; establishment of a water level control gate between the slough and Bybee Lake and recreation of mini-parks along the slough for recreation.

“A Plug at the mouth of the Columbia Slough can be likened only to a bottleneck, serving very limited interests, to the detriment of thousands of acres and millions of investments and to almost all the public recreational interests everywhere,” Bigelow said. “Cities the world over would give their eye teeth for a navigable body of water like the Columbia Slough.”

The Oregon State Marine Board urged Friday that the slough be developed and improved for navigation by very small boats. Robert Rittenhouse, board director, said the board also recommends deepening and improvement of the Smith and Bybee Lakes area for boating and to help wildlife and fish preservation.

He suggested a central administering agency “so that all partisans have fair use of the lakes.”

Rittenhouse said the board also suggests the banks of the slough be rip-rapped, if necessary, to prevent wave-wash damage from boat wakes. It also was suggested that small boat moorages and barge-loading ports could be carved out along the shoreline where feasible.

“Channel for barges proposed for slough” – The Oregonian, July 1, 1972

James Bigelow, president of the Columbia Slough Development Corp., Friday presented to the Columbia slough Task Force Committee a plan to dredge 10 miles of the slough for barge navigation.

He was backed up by Terry DeSylvia, attorney for the corporation, and Henry Sause, Jr., president of Sause Bros. Ocean Towing.

Bigelow proposed removing the plug placed at the west end of the slough during the recent flood threat and the old plug at the east end of the slough, then dredging a channel 10 feet deep and 100 feet wide for use by barges.

He proposed hiking and biking trails and miniparks on the widened dikes and levees and hydrofoils to speed commuters along the canal and into the Willamette as far as Oregon City.

DeSylvia, attorney for the Herbert Malarkey interests and the Columbia Slough Development Corp., challenged the concept of the Port of Portland’s 3,000-acre Rivergate industrial area which has been under development for 10 years.

Cost questioned

“What will be the cost of developing Rivergate in money, air, water and noise pollution,” he asked.

He suggested that the people of the community should decide “whether they would prefer a 3,000-acre industrial complex.”

The port wants to seal off the slough permanently to simplify the development of Rivergate, DeSylvia charged.

The corporation’s plan was the ninth submitted to the task force committee, which will hold another public hearing July 14.

Robert Rittenhouse, director, and Lawrence Barber, member of the State Marine Board, urged development of the slough for navigation by small boats, with bridges designed for 25 to 30 feet vertical clearance. They suggested that Smith and Bybee lakes be deepened to support fish and wildlife as well as pleasure boating.

Robert Straub, state treasurer and member of the State Land Board, said he thought it “was nonsense to block off the slough and destroy 7 1/2 miles of the state’s waterways.”

Ed Quan, chief biologist for the Department of Environmental Quality, reported on the condition of the water in the slough and the sediments in the canal bottom.