Year-end report highlights East Fork restoration efforts

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A partnership formed to improve water quality on the East Fork Lewis River has its first full year in the books as the Washington Department of Ecology released a 2019 year in review of efforts made to benefit the waterway.

The six-page report offers a snapshot of the work taken on by partnership organizations, ranging from grant opportunities applied for, work done over the year, as well as what to expect from the partnership in 2020. 

The East Fork Lewis River Partnership formed in 2018 in order to address water quality issues discovered during a recent study, coordinating state and local governments and interests to improve the waterway.

The report highlighted a variety of activity in 2019 from partnership groups and agencies. According to the report, more than 50 different partners from 30 organizations have participated in partnership activities since its formation, many of which were in 2019. Those ranged from the Washington State University Extension Small Acreage Program sending out mailers to 1,000 landowners on the East Fork informing them of its workshops to improve water quality, to a full year of water quality monitoring by the Clark County Clean Water Division which will be used to steer improvement efforts in 2020. 

Other activities noted in the report included the city of La Center implementing a stormwater utility tax as a long-term investment in infrastructure benefitting the river this year, as well as the start of an East Fork Lewis River Recovery Plan Review by the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board, which will update the existing 2004 plan to account for changes in the environment over time.

Ecology also completed a draft of the East Fork Lewis River Water Cleanup Plan this year, according to the report. The plan will be reviewed internally by the department as well as by the partnership with that process likely to start next year.



The report noted that Ecology also took on a nonpoint source (NPS) investigation to determine what was causing the elevated fecal coliform bacteria levels in the river, which along with elevated water temperatures is one of the two major issues the East Fork has. That work would continue into 2020 but the investigation turned up one potential source, a now-decommissioned manure lagoon at an old dairy farm. 

2019 also marked the first major public outreach by the partnership, as the report noted they hosted a public town hall in June which packed the La Center Grange building with concerned or curious individuals with an interest in the river.

Looking ahead to 2020, the report stated that grant funding opportunities for four projects submitted this year will be determined in mid-January. The projects included creating a 10-acre, 100-foot-wide forested corridor on Manley Creek to provide shade with the intent of dropping water temperatures; planting shrubs on Clark County-owned land along 4,000 feet of the East Fork with a similar aim; completion of a stormwater master plan at the city of La Center that would benefit the lower East Fork and Brezee Creek; and a “Poop Smart” program that aims to identify pollution sources and provide community outreach, educational and financial support to reduce bacteria in the water.

The report noted that the $6.5 million available statewide for qualified projects made 2020 “a very competitive year” for those seeking funding.

A full copy of the report is available at bit.ly/38UKpuh.