Client: Lower Columbia River Watershed Council

Waterways completed the planning, design and construction oversight for a floodplain enhancement project located within the Columbia River floodplain, just east of Clatskanie, Oregon in Columbia County.  The project was a collaborative effort between the landowner, Columbia Soil and Water Conservation District, Lower Columbia River Watershed Council, Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership, and Bonneville Power Administration.

Client: South Coast Habitat Restoration

Waterways provided design and construction support services to South Coast Habitat Restoration to improve fish passage conditions and vehicular access at a private bridge that crosses Carpinteria Creek. The project site had a concrete-lined channel with drop structures that impeded the upstream migration of salmonids and an undersized bridge that could be overtopped during flood events. Site improvements included removing the concrete-lined channel, recontouring the banks, and revegetating the riparian area. The redesigned channel will provide hydraulic conditions conducive to fish passage. Waterways designed a 55’-span vehicular bridge to replace the undersized bridge. The new bridge can convey floods greater than the 100-year storm event. The construction phase of the project was funded by the Fisheries Restoration Grant Program through the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Photo Credit: Pre-Construction (Left), Waterways Consulting, Inc. Post-Construction (Right), Moe Gomez of South Coast Habitat Restoration

Client: Clackamas County, Water Environment Services

Since 2009, Waterways staff has worked with Clackamas County’s Water Environment Services (WES) on Action Planning and Geomorphic Monitoring efforts in the more urbanized portions of Clackamas County. In 2008 and 2009, Waterways was an integral member of a team of consultants that prepared Watershed Action Plans (WAP) for the Kellogg/Mt. Scott and Rock Creek watersheds. Waterways prepared the hydrologic and geomorphic sections of the Action Plan for each basin and assisted in the development of a subwatershed-scale risk assessment, identification of project priorities, and a tool-based identification of levels of service.

Client: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers via HDR, Inc.

Dairy Creek is located approximately 12 miles northwest of Portland, Oregon on Sauvie Island. Dairy Creek is a highly modified channel connecting the Columbia River at river mile (RM) 98.5 to Sturgeon Lake. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), along with local partners, West Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District (WMSWCD) and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) are interested in evaluating restoration opportunities for Dairy Creek (Sauvie Island) via the Section 1135 of the 2000 Water Resources Development Act. The original intent of the Dairy Creek Restoration Feasibility Study (Study) was to evaluate alternatives to re-establish Dairy Creek as a flushing channel for Sturgeon Lake.

North Fork John Day Watershed Council

Fox Creek has been identified as an important spawning and rearing tributary to the North Fork of the John Day River in Eastern Oregon.  Impacts to the stream and watershed include fish passage barriers associated with passive diversion structures, water withdrawals during the critical low flow summer season, lack of adequate fish screening at water diversion sites, and severe channel incision that was causing reductions in water quality associated with bank erosion and loss of a continuous riparian canopy, loss of functional floodplain habitat, and conversion of productive hay fields to marginal rangeland as water tables declined.  These changes were having a noticeable impact on the economic viability of the land and the sustainability of natural ecological processes.

Client: Tualatin River Watershed Council (TRWC)

In March of 2003 the TRWC completed work on the Lower Gales Creek Habitat Enhancement Plan. Gales Creek is a major tributary to the Tualatin River in Washington County, Oregon. The Enhancement Plan identified potential restoration projects designed to improve habitat conditions for steelhead and other salmonids. To evaluate the feasibility of implementing potential channel, floodplain, and habitat enhancement projects, TRWC retained the services of Waterways staff to conduct a comprehensive geomorphic assessment of the planning reach and prioritize potential restoration options. The geomorphic assessment and project feasibility study was completed in 2005. Following completion of the study, Waterways has continued to work with the TRWC by preparing construction documents for site specific projects aimed at enhancing channel and floodplain function, improving in-stream and off-channel aquatic and wetland habitat, and restoring riparian areas. Waterways and TRWC has worked closely with landowners and other stakeholders to achieve the identified goals.

Client: Yamhill Basin Council

Gooseneck Creek, tributary to Mill Creek and the South Yamhill River, is an important tributary for steelhead/coho salmon spawning and rearing. The project area is located above the confluence with Mill Creek in a portion of the channel that was historically impacted by aggregate mining. Waterways was contracted by the Greater Yamhill Basin Council to develop a restoration design for approximately 2,000 feet of Gooseneck Creek that was incised down to bedrock due to past mining activities and historic plugging of a secondary channel. Confinement of the channel, in-channel mining activities, and loss of secondary channels had all but eliminated the natural pool-riffle morphology with a consequent loss of aquatic and riparian habitat.

Client: Clean Water Services (CWS), Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL)

Waterways assisted CWS and DSL in the planning and design of a 20 acre mitigation bank in the Tualatin River Watershed to provide wetland, temperature, and salmon credits.  In addition to providing purchasable credits, the project simultaneously tested a function-based accounting system developed by the Willamette Partnership’s Counting on the Environment program (http://www.willamettepartnership.org). This program was developed with the help of public, private, and non-profit stakeholders to develop a shared accounting system for quantifying impacts and benefits to ecosystem services for application to ecosystem markets. The Partnership completed a test version for water temperature, wetlands, salmonid habitat, and upland prairie that was applied to pilot projects in the program. Half Mile Lane was one of the pilot projects that tested three of these services, and was the only pilot site thus far that resulted in real-world transactions. Therefore, this project tested not only the ecosystem credit calculator, but also the sequence of developing, selling and buying ecosystem credits.

Client: California Trout, Inc.

Lower Hat Creek is an important coldwater fishery and is designated a Wild Trout Fishery by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Decades of cattle grazing, the introduction of muskrats, and over-fishing caused the degradation of riparian and aquatic habitat along lower Hat Creek. Waterways, in collaboration with Streeter Group and California Trout, Inc., recently completed construction documents to restore the lower section of Hat Creek.  

Client: Latimer Environmental

The Hillsboro Landfill is a construction-demolition waste landfill situated on 400 acres south of Hillsboro, Oregon between SE Minter Bridge Road and the Tualatin River. With the landfill operations located at the northeast end of the property, the south and west sides of the property contain wetland mitigation sites adjacent to the Tualatin River. Waterways was retained to design an outfall from the constructed wetlands located at the south end of the property that provides a geomorphically stable discharge into the Tualatin River. 

Client: Oregon Parks and Recreation

Waterways Consulting recently completed a restoration plan for Jackson and Netarts Creeks for Oregon Parks and Recreation District at Cape Lookout State Park.  The focus of the effort was to evaluate the hydrology, geomorphology, and habitat conditions of Jackson Creek, the principle stream that flows through Cape Lookout.  Approximately 60 years ago, a portion of Jackson Creek was diverted to Netarts Bay to increase freshwater flows into Netarts Bay with the hope of improving the commercial oyster beds.  Impacts associated with the diversion and associated flow split were addressed in the restoration plan as well as opportunities for enhancement of the Jackson Creek mainstem downstream of the diversion site. 

The Lower Clatskanie Floodplain Restoration Project site is located along the mainstem of the Clatskanie River approximately 2 river miles upstream of the Highway 30 crossing near the City of Clatskanie.  The project reach is located where the river transitions from a riverine to a tidal regime, the floodplain widens considerably, and coarse bedload deposition is greatly enhanced.  Consequently, the river is very dynamic and the floodplain consists of a mosaic of secondary and tertiary channels that are a result of historic and recent avulsion events associated with high flow, localized sediment deposition, bank failures and landslides, and development of large log jams. Although the site appears to be under the influence of natural physical processes, past land use impacts have led to a degraded riparian corridor dominated by reed canary grass, less frequent side channel connectivity, and a lack of pool scour in floodplain and secondary channels.

Client: Monument Soil and Water Conservation District

Cottonwood Creek is a major tributary to the North Fork John Day River and has been identified as critical habitat for Middle Columbia River steelhead. The lower four miles of the creek enters a broad valley, providing opportunities for agriculture that relies on the water of Cottonwood Creek for production. There are currently 12 diversion sites along lower Cottonwood Creek, referred to as points of diversion (POD’s). Many of these diversions result in fish passage barriers during the low flow season. The Monument Soil and Water Conservation district requested Waterways assistance in the assessment of channel stability and fish passage for all 12 PODs and designs for three of the known fish passage barriers.

Client: Wasco County Soil and Water Conservation District

Mill Creek is a moderately-sized tributary to the Columbia River that originates on the eastern slope of Mt. Hood and flows northeast through the City of The Dalles, Oregon. Urbanization along the lower two miles of Mills Creek in the City of The Dalles resulted in the simplification of the aquatic and riparian habitats. In 2011, The Dalles Watershed Council (DWC) commissioned an evaluation of the urbanized reach to assess land use impacts and identify opportunities for habitat restoration. Following the initial assessment, a preliminary engineering design was developed for the Honald/Buyers property. The preliminary design included excavation and connection of a historic side channel that had been partially filled, utilization of an existing side channel as a backwater alcove, installation of a precast spanning bridge across the reconnected side channel, and installation of large wood structures along the channels and floodplain to increase roughness and improve habitat conditions.

Client: Tualatin River Watershed Council

Waterways staff prepared engineering designs and specifications to improve passage for steelhead and cutthroat trout on a headwater tributary to the Tualatin River in Washington County, OR. The site consisted of a seasonal flashboard dam. Downstream of the flashboard dam the channel had incised 3-feet creating a fish passage barrier under most flow conditions. The design consists of a series of five rock weirs to build the bed up downstream of the structure and provide fish passage under all flow conditions by creating a backwater condition at the dam. Waterways assisted the TRWC with the permitting and construction supervision. The project was constructed in Summer 2008.

Client: Scappoose Bay Watershed Council

Waterways was retained by the Scappoose Bay Watershed Council to develop bid-ready engineering drawings for six culverts on Salmon and Cox Creeks in the Scappoose Bay Watershed that were identified as high priority fish passage barriers during an assessment conducted in 2001.  The design approach consisted of replacing each culvert with a bottomless arch culvert using streambed simulation criteria established by NOAA Fisheries and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. 

Client: Scappoose Bay Watershed Council

In 2000, the Scappoose Bay Watershed Council (SBWC) completed a watershed assessment for the streams and catchments that enter Scappoose Bay. The watershed assessment identified several areas of concern affecting watershed and ecosystem health. Of particular concern was the potential impact that incision has on channel and floodplain interaction and the ability of the stream to support and maintain good aquatic habitat. A 5 mile stretch of South Scappoose Creek that flows through the City of Scappoose was determined to have high priority for further assessment. It was identified as a priority for further assessment due to local concerns about erosion and flooding and the opportunities to enhance conditions for salmon and other organisms.

Client: Necanicum River Watershed Council

Waterways was hired to develop an engineered solution to address a high priority fish passage site on the South Fork Necanicum.  The project site consists of a 6-foot high diversion dam and intake structure.  The objectives of the project were to provide unimpeded passage for all species and life histories of salmonids present in the South Fork, meet NMFS and NOAA Fisheries fish screening guidelines, and provide a reliable source of water to the City of Seaside according to their existing water right.  Specific project tasks include preparing a set of alternatives for review by a technical advisory team, preparation of preliminary engineering drawings for the selected alternative, preparation of a water management plan that identifies potential changes in the operation and management of the diversion as a result of the modifications, and preparation of the final engineering drawings.