Tumwater refocuses work to improve Pioneer Park’s shoreline

Tumwater is refocusing its work on stabilizing the shoreline of the Deschutes River as it passes Pioneer Park, a project that has been in the works since 2014.

The erosion along Pioneer Park’s shoreline annually conveys around 2,380 cubic yards of fine sediment into the river, negatively impacting water quality and the habitat conditions of the Coho salmon.

A design report has already been made to address the issue, but the shoreline has shifted, rendering the designs outdated.

According to the contract's project description, the Deschutes River through Pioneer Parks migrates 9.4 feet per year.

In 2021, the city entered into a $450,000 grant agreement with the Washington Department of Ecology to redesign and work on the needed stabilization.

The contract expires next month so the City Council, as part of their consent agenda on Tuesday, September 17, approved an amendment to the agreement, extending it until October next year.

The delay has been attributed to the lengthy permitting process as the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) needs to get involved for the project. Project consultant Meredith Greer said in a Public Works Committee meeting in early September that due to USACE’s staffing levels, it would need two years to issue any permit for the project.

The amendment also rescopes the contract by dividing the project into two phases and having the current grant agreement focus on the first phase.

The first phase, which is referred to as upland work, involves the planting of riparian trees on the outer part of the site. The plantings seek to provide shade and restore aquatic habitat by increasing in-stream complexity, according to the project description.

These plantings will occur along 375 feet of the Deschutes River and start 250 feet away from the riverbank moving toward the first 100 to 150 feet of the riparian buffer.

Greer noted that work for phase one will not require any permits from USACE.

The second phase, which is estimated to start next year, will deal with the stabilization work along 1,000 feet of Deschutes River, additional plantings, and the construction of in-water features to replicate the natural flow of rivers.