The Warrenton Kia car dealership has applied for a fish passage exemption in a project to expand its parking lot.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says the unnamed tributary this project effects eventually drains into the Columbia River via Youngs Bay, but is not important to fish passage. No fish appear to use the site, a department analysis states.
Fish and Wildlife is seeking public comment on the proposed exemption. Unless the department receives new information that would give them pause, the exemption request will be approved and Warrenton Kia’s plans to expand the parking lot will proceed, state officials say.
The state issues few such exemptions, said Greg Apke, the Fish and Wildlife’s fish-passage program coordinator. And when the state does issue them, the exemptions are rarely popular.
“Nobody likes these exemptions and I get that completely,” Apke said. But, he added, they are completely legal and viable when site conditions are appropriate.
The state rules are clear, he said. To qualify for the exemption, Warrenton Kia has to show that native fish wouldn’t benefit even if the stream was open to fish passage.
“The proposed project at the Warrenton Kia site undoubtedly meets this criterion,” an analysis by Fish and Wildlife concludes, “due to the developed nature of the area, poor habitat and lack of fish at the project site, and no habitat available upstream.”
The stream affected by Warrenton Kia’s plans may have once been a tidal stream or channel, years before the area was developed. Now it is essentially a drainage ditch, choked with weeds and algae, that dips under roads and eventually hits a tide gate. If fish were interested in the stream, that tide gate completely blocks entry 90 percent of the time anyway, Apke said. The water in it now comes from runoff; it is not fed by stream channels.
“Habitat conditions are very poor, especially in the summer with very little or no flow,” the analysis states. “… Winter conditions would offer slightly better water quality, but habitat conditions overall would still be poor.”
Any proposed exemption must also pass muster with the state’s Fish Passage Task Force, which makes recommendations on whether the department should or should not approve a request for exemption.
For more information and for the department’s benefit analysis, visit www.dfw.state.or.us/fish/passage.
People will have until July 14 to submit written comments on the proposed plan. Comments or requests for additional information can be sent to Greg Apke, ODFW Fish Passage Program leader, 4034 Fairview Industrial Drive SE, Salem, OR 97303; or by email to Greg.D.Apke@state.or.us; or by calling (503) 947-6228.