Environment - Fish Passage

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Chronic Environmental Deficiencies

 Photo of staff reviewing a gradual bank failure on SR 142 adjacent to the Klickitat River.
Photo of staff reviewing a gradual bank failure on SR 142 adjacent to the Klickitat River.  
Chronic environmental deficiencies (CED) are locations along the state highway system where recent, frequent, and chronic maintenance repairs to the state transportation system are causing impacts to fish and fish habitat. In 2002, WSDOT established a partnership (Memorandum of Agreement) with the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) to move away from the repetitive repair of WSDOT roads and instead, concentrate on long-term solutions that will optimize the improvements for fish and fish habitat, while also addressing transportation needs.

CED projects have to meet two qualifiers:

  1. Maintenance has been conducted on the site 3 times in the previous 10 years (3 in 10)
  2. The maintenance being conducted has a negative impact on aquatic fish habitat.

How are CED's identified?

Potential CED's can be nominated by WSDOT, WDFW, Tribes or other concerned parties. Nominations come to the CED coordinator who works with WSDOT region staff to identify possible CED projects.  Nominations will be screened to determine if the sites meet the program's criteria. The initial site assessment consists of the CED coordinator, WSDOT's Senior Hydrologist, the Region Maintenance Environmental Coordinator, and persons familiar with the site verifying eligibility to the CED list and filing out an intake form with initial recommendations. Those projects meeting the criteria are all added to the list of CED sites.

For each site, WSDOT conducts either a reach assessment, reach analysis or corridor analysis that evaluates and identifies the hydrologic mechanisms for failure and develops a conceptual design solution. In 2005, WDFW developed a prioritization methodology which provides a scientifically based priority to the order of CED correction.

How does WSDOT fund CED projects?

Those projects that qualify as Chronic Environmental Deficiencies can be fixed with project funds, some as emergencies, bridge funds, and others can get fixed as line item projects funded by the legislature under Improvement - Environmental Retrofit.

What has been accomplished so far?

The WSDOT CED program got off the ground in 2004, since then 6 high priority sites have gone through the process of reach assessments/analysis, design, and construction to correct the deficiencies. There are currently 20 CED projects funded for $50 million to design and construct by 2010.
The CED program has saved maintenance cost, reduced the loss of commerce due to road closures, removed or reused riprap and other material damaging aquatic habitat and replaced with rough woody structures designed to add salmonid habitat.
The CED program is currently working to develop a monitoring plan to monitor 3 major aspects of the Hoh River project; structural integrity, geomorphic changes and biological success of the project. 

 

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Basic CED Retrofit Process Flow Chart

  

Projects by Region

ISV = Initial Site Visit
SOW = Scope of work


North Central Region (Okanogan, Chelan, Douglas, & Grant)

  • SR 2, Tumwater Canyon
    • Reach assessment in progress
  • SR 20 Bonaparte Creek
    • ISV complete, awaiting SOW

Northwest Region (Whatcom, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish, King, & east Pierce)

Olympic Region (Clallam, Jefferson, Grays Harbor, Mason, Thurston, & west Pierce)

South Central Region (Kittitas, Yakima, Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield, & Asotin)

Southwest Region (Pacific, Wahkiakum, Lewis, Cowlitz, Clark, & Skamania)

  • SR 105, Norris Slough
  • SR 12, Rainey/Stiltner
  • SR 508, Newaukum River 
  • SR 142 Wahkiakus Bridge
    • ISV complete, awaiting SOW
  • SR 142 Klickitat low bank site
    • ISV complete, awaiting SOW
  • SR 503 Trib to Chelatchie
    • Reach Assessment in progress 

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