Richland Council backs application to remove Bateman Island from city lease, citing management concerns

The Richland City Council on Tuesday voted 7-0 to authorize the city manager to submit an application to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to remove Bateman Island from the city's recreational lease, a move city staff and conservation partners said would reduce the city's management obligations if the Corps proceeds with causeway removal.

The resolution asks the Corps to consider amending the city's lease so Bateman Island would revert to Corps management; the motion passed by unanimous consent. Council discussion and public comment during the meeting focused on the environmental effects of removing a roughly 550-foot rock-and-earthen causeway, public access and how land management responsibilities would change.

During a nearly hour-long presentation, Mike Livingston, South Central Washington regional director for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Joe Blodgett, project manager with the Yakama Klickitat Fisheries Project, described the Bateman Island causeway removal as an ecosystem restoration project that partners have worked on since about 2016 and formally pursued with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beginning in 2017. Livingston told council the Corps completed a feasibility study in…