Clatsop County planning commission backs Port of Portland requests for Columbia River dredge-disposal site exceptions

The Clatsop County Planning Commission on Sept. 16 recommended that the Board of Commissioners adopt a package of ordinances to document Goal 16 exceptions and add dredged-material disposal sites in the Columbia River Estuary, the commission’s staff and the Port of Portland said during a multi-hour public hearing.

The ordinances before the commission would: allow in‑water and shoreline placement at designated conservation and natural estuarine zones under narrow criteria of Oregon’s Goal 16; amend county code to add new definitions and standards for confined aquatic, shallow-water, transfer and shoreline placement; and update the county’s dredged-material overlay map to show 18 sites in total. The planning commission voted to recommend adoption of each ordinance with the staff-recommended conditions; one commissioner recorded a “no” vote on one ordinance.

Staff said the requests come from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Lower Columbia River Dredge Material Management Plan (DMMP) process, and that the Port of Portland filed the local applications after the federal planning effort identified sites where dredged material will be placed over the DMMP’s 20-year planning horizon. "The Corps has determined it is necessary to place dredged materials outside of the navigation channel at sites where state and local law would not otherwise authorize disposal," Tom Bullion, planning manager for the Port of Portland, told the commission.

County staff described the regulatory framework and the narrow legal test for a “reasons” goal exception under Oregon Administrative Rules for Goal 16. Director Henriksen (Community Development) summarized the four reasons the county must evaluate: why the goal should not apply to the project; that no other areas are available; that impacts from the proposed sites would not be greater than reasonable alternatives; and that the placement would be compatible with adjacent uses. "We were made a cooperating agency" on the DMMP, staff…