Prairie Creek flows under a new culvert on Bunker Creek Road. The concrete structure replaced a metal pipe that had been obstructing the passage of salmon.
The prohibitive costs of replacing culverts impeding fish passage was a topic of interest at the 5th Annual Legislative Roundtable last Friday, as County Manager Erik Martin asked state lawmakers to streamline the process of improving conditions for salmon species.
Martin told state legislators in attendance of the rising costs of barrier replacement in recent years. He reported the cost has surged from about $200,000 each to $860,000 for the installation of a single roadway culvert.
“I believe that some of that has been encouraged by overregulation, where we are forced to to do things like pebble counts,” said Martin when referring to the recommended practice of tallying the total amount of pebbles in any given stream or waterway where a culvert replacement is due to take place.
The prohibitive cost could be lessened to more affordable rates through legislative efforts to relieve regulations on new roadway pipe infrastructure, Martin said.
“I’d like the regulators to think about … do they want us to do one culvert for $900,000 or three culverts for that? If you really want to solve this problem, I’d rather do three culverts,” reasoned Martin.
Rep. Ed Orcutt (R-Kalama) was on board with Martin’s assessment and stated that “getting the fish upstream” would accomplish much more than instituting pebble counts.
“Part of the concern for me is that small landowners and large landowners have had to do this for years,” he added. “They’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars to replace the culverts and the fish can’t get to them because of a blockage on the state highway. And so, the more expensive we make it, the longer it takes to get the fish there.”
Sen. Dean Takko (D-Kelso) also shared those same frustrations by telling Martin that he “doesn’t like it” either when referencing the steep costs and regulations involved in the undertaking.
By Martin’s count, there are currently 500 fish-barrier culverts in Lewis County, which doesn’t include local highways.
