Wednesday February 5, 2025
Tri-City Herald —
Customers of the Columbia Park Marina have been notified that the marina will be decommissioned and removed this year, after no option to save it could be found.
The Army Corps of Engineers announced plans in October to remove the earthen causeway just west of the marina at a cost of $13.2 million to restore free flowing water and help salmon.
The causeway provides a walking trail — the only land access — to Bateman Island. But it also creates warm slack water. Conditions there are ideal for nonnative fish, such as small mouth bass, to prey on young salmon migrating toward the ocean in the spring.
Removing the causeway to allow water from the Yakima River to flow around the south side of the island would change water flow downstream. “With no provisions to protect the marina after the causeway has been removed, the vessels moored in the marina, the dock structures and fueling system will be vulnerable to damage with changing currents, water levels, and ice and debris that would flow through the marina,” Amy Ford, the managing owner of Columbia Park Marina, told customers in a letter dated Friday.