Pacific Northwest
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: Clackamas County, Water Environment Services
Clackamas County Water Environment Services (WES) is one of the agencies responsible for wastewater and stormwater management in the greater Portland metro area. To better understand the effects of management activities on watershed health and the status of aquatic resources in the district, WES contracted with Waterways to develop monitoring methods and carry out monitoring of aquatic resource and physical habitat conditions in its management region, which consists of small and medium sized tributaries in the lower Willamette, Clackamas, and Tualatin Rivers, in northern Clackamas County, OR. In close cooperation with WES, Waterways led the development of geomorphic monitoring approaches, site selection, establishment of monumented cross sections and initial monitoring of 25 to 30 stream reaches in 2009. Each monitoring event includes long profile and cross section surveys, bulk bed material sampling, pebble counts, large wood inventory, measurements of pool size and frequency, documentation of active bank erosion, and general geomorphic observations. These data are complimented with macroinvertebrate population analysis of the same reaches by Mike Cole (Cole Ecological), a regional expert in stream macroinvertebrates. WES retained Waterways to lead monitoring events in 2009, 2011, 2014, and 2017.
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.
Client: MCS, Corp.
Waterways recently prepared detailed engineering plans and specifications to construct a wetland mitigation site in the historic floodplain of Yakima River in Washington. The site was historically leveled and channelized for livestock grazing before being purchased by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). BLM has been managing the property to reduce invasive weeds for several years in anticipation of this project, which was initiated as a mitigation site for a nearby gravel mining operation with direct impacts to a nearby wetland.
Client: 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
Waterways staff prepared the engineering design documents to reactivate a historic secondary channel on Gooseneck Creek and encourage bed aggradation through a bedrock reach. The project is located above the confluence with Mill Creek in Polk County, Oregon. The secondary channel was plugged during gravel mining operations over the last several decades. The effect on the main stem channel has been an increase in flow velocities and energy and subsequent downcutting of the creek to bedrock.
Client: Clean Water Services (CWS), Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL)
Waterways assisted Clean Water Services and Department of State Lands 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 create a shared accounting system for quantifying impacts and benefits to ecosystem services for application to ecosystem markets. The Partnership has completed a test version for water temperature, wetlands, salmonid habitat, and upland prairie that was applied to pilot projects. Half Mile Lane was one of the pilot projects that tested three of these services, and was the first pilot site that resulted in real-world transactions. The project tested not only the ecosystem credit calculator, but also the sequence of developing, selling and buying ecosystem credits.
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 Creek and Netarts Creek for the OPRD 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.
Client: Columbia Soil and Water Conservation District
This project is located along the mainstem of the Clatskanie River, where the river transitions from a riverine to a tidal system. 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: Scappoose Bay Watershed Council
Milton Creek was identified as a high priority tributary to Scappoose Bay and the lower Columbia River Estuary. Multiple species of salmon utilize the system including coho, Chinook, and chum as well as steelhead and sea-run cutthroat trout. A rapid biological assessment, conducted in 2012 identified several reaches in the headwaters of Milton Creek as anchor habitats for coho and steelhead.
In 2013, the Scappoose Bay Watershed Council contracted with Waterways Consulting to assist in a planning process to enhance instream habitat by introducing large wood to over three miles of channel that occurred between the two segments of identified anchor habitat. The entire reach is owned and managed by the City of St. Helens who were active partners in the planning and design process and have committed to donating large wood to the project.
Following a comprehensive site assessment a total of 15 stream reaches were identified within the 3.2 mile assessment area with 7,600 feet of channel proposed for introduction of large wood. Due to poor accessibility to many of the reaches and the desire to introduce entire trees to the channel, the proposed approach consisted of felling existing, standing trees from the adjacent forested areas. Dense stands of primarily douglas fir occur on the perimeter of managed tree farms. In 2 of the 15 reaches wood was harvested from the adjacent forest an installed in jams in the channel. In the other reaches, trees were cut directly from the adjacent forest where conifer densities were high. Approximately 400 logs were placed in the three mile project area.
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 consisted 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 Tualatin River Watershed Council (TRWC) with the permitting and construction supervision. The project was constructed in Summer 2008.
Clean Water Service (CWS) is tasked with managing stormwater in portions of Washington County, OR that fall within the Urban Growth Boundary with the goal of protecting waterways and natural resources within stream and wetland corridors. When a new development is proposed, CWS works with the developer to meet regulatory requirements associated with increased runoff from impervious surfaces with the goal of maintaining discharges of stormwater to pre-development conditions. Traditionally, meeting these requirements consists of designing and constructing large, regional stormwater management facilities in upland areas adjacent to the new developments.
Client: Metro
Deep Creek is a moderately-sized tributary to the Clackamas River in Clackamas County, Oregon. The North Fork of Deep Creek is characterized by a naturally incised channel with adjacent river terraces. In 2009, Metro, a Portland area regional land use management agency, purchased the Mabel Johnson property as open space, encompassing approximately two miles of the mainstem of North Fork. Natural resource restoration at the property included removal of several home sites, removal of non-native vegetation, and restoration of riparian and upland plant communities. In 2012, Metro asked Waterways to participate in a restoration planning process to enhance instream habitat through the property with a focus on coho and Chinook salmon, steelhead, and cutthroat trout. In response, Waterways conducted a comprehensive evaluation of habitat and geomorphic conditions within the channel and prepared an assessment that identified a set of restoration actions.
Client: Cascade Environmental Group
Waterways has teamed with Cascade Environmental Group to develop, implement, and monitor a restoration plan for approximately 30 acres of riparian and bottomland forest along the Willamette River in the city of Gladstone. The site encompasses a short, perennial tributary known as Rinearson Creek that is periodically backwatered from the Willamette River and provides rearing and off-channel refugia for a variety of species and life stages of salmon.
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 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 five mile stretch of South Scappoose Creek that flows through the City of Scappoose was determined to be a high priority reach 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: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The Seestrom Tidelands Restoration project will construct approximately four miles of tidal floodplain channels and restore fish access and tidal flows within a 300-acre working pasture property in the lower reach of the Coquille River, Oregon. Conversion to pastureland at the site began in the early 1900s with the clearing of native forest, construction of levees and linear drainage ditches, and installation of tidegates, which are currently in disrepair, preventing active tidal flows and fish movement.
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.