The planning area is set within Water Resource Inventory Areas Cowlitz (WRIA 26), Lewis (WRIA 27), and Salmon-Washougal (WRIA 28). Most of the precipitation falls during the winter months when water demands are the lowest. During the summer, the snowpack is diminished or nonexistent, there is little or no rain, and stream flows are largely dependent on groundwater. This means that water is least available when water demands are the highest. Both extreme high or low flows may limit the deployment of some response strategies.

Climate and Winds

Prevailing winds are generally from the north to northwest in the summer, and south and south-southeast in the winter. Average wind speed is four to five miles per hour. Monthly averages typically vary by only one mile per hour.

Oil Types: Both refined petroleum products and crude oils are transported in bulk within this planning area. Crude oils contain a mix of hydrocarbons with a wide range of properties, while a refined product is a single type of oil, such as diesel or gasoline. Depending on the oil and the characteristics of the water the oil is spilled into, some of the oil transported in this planning area may sink or submerge.

Different oils will behave differently when spilled to water. Some heavy oils will sink immediately, some oil suspends in the water column, and lighter oils may stay on the surface and evaporate within hours. Over time, oil that initially floats can weather and mix with sediment, causing it to submerge or sink. Non-floating oils pose a specific risk to the environment because they can harm underwater or bottom-dwelling species that would otherwise be unaffected by a spill of an oil type that remains on the surface.

Traditional response strategies, including the booming strategies in this GRP, are designed to collect or exclude floating oil. However, steps can be taken to plan for and respond to a non-floating oil spill. The Response Options and Considerations section provides an overview of areas where non-floating oil might accumulate if spilled within this planning area, along with information on specific tactics that may be effective during a response. More response options recommended for finding and recovering oil below the surface can be found in the Non-Floating Oil Spill Response Tool (NWRCP Section 9412).

Facilities: There are no large Ecology Spills Program-regulated facilities within the planning area. However, a spill from one of the facilities located at the Port of Vancouver could move down the Columbia River and impact some of the tributaries along its right bank.

Trains: Rail companies transport oil via both unit trains and manifest trains in this area. Unit trains include up to four locomotives, buffer cars, and 118 loaded tank cars transporting oil in 714-barrel (29,998 gallon) capacity USDOT-approved tank cars. Manifest trains include up to four locomotives, a mix of non-oil merchandise cars, and one or more 714-barrel (29,998 gallon) capacity USDOT-approved tank cars carrying refined oil products, such as diesel, lubrication oil, or gasoline. These trains may include emptied tank cars, each with residual quantities of up to 1,800 gallons of crude oil or petroleum products. Every train locomotive typically holds a few hundred gallons of engine lubrication oil, plus saddle tanks that each have an approximate capacity of 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel. Manifest trains may also transport biological oils and non-petroleum chemicals.

Unit trains carrying crude currently operate on specific routes. Unit trains carrying crude from the Bakken Formation in North Dakota enter Washington State near Spokane, continue along the Columbia River to Vancouver, and then head north along I-5.

Oil Pipelines: One petroleum pipeline passes through the planning area. The 299-mile-long Olympic Pipeline transports products from the four refineries in Whatcom and Skagit Counties to terminals in the Seattle area, as well as Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and continues south across the Columbia River, ending at the Portland International Airport. This pipeline transports refined petroleum products, mainly diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel. Being that the pipeline mostly parallels Interstate-5, it crosses many rivers and creeks within the planning area.

Large Commercial Vessel Traffic: Many vessels visit Washington and Oregon ports along the Columbia River. Cargo and passenger vessels had 1,308 entering transits in 2021 (Vessel Entries and Transits). A spill on the Columbia River’s main marine transportation corridor could affect many of the tidally influenced tributaries within this planning area.

Road Systems: Vehicle traffic on roadways pose an oil spill risk in areas where they run adjacent to the shoreline, or cross over lakes, rivers, creeks, and ditches that drain into the Columbia River or their tributaries. Interstate 5 sees the highest volumes, and like the Olympic Pipeline, crosses many rivers and creeks over the 69 miles that run between the northern and southern borders of the planning area. A vehicle spill onto or near one of its bridges or banks could lead to oil reaching a waterbody. Commercial trucks can contain hundreds to thousands of gallons of fuel and oil, especially fully loaded tank trucks, and may carry almost any kind of cargo, including hazardous waste or other materials that might injure sensitive resources if spilled. Smaller vehicle accidents pose a risk as well, a risk commensurate to the volume of fuel and oil they carry.

Aircraft: Several smaller airports are located within the CCSWL planning area including Ed Carlson Memorial in Toledo, Kelso-Longview, Woodland, and Goheen in Battle Ground. Pearson Field in Vancouver is situated just outside the planning area boundary.  Lastly, just across the Columbia River, Portland International sees the highest traffic and the largest airplanes in the area. The potential exists for failures during inbound or outbound flights that could result in a spill with a release of jet fuel to waterbodies in the region.

Recreational Boating: Accidents involving recreational watercraft on rivers and lakes have the potential to result in spills of anywhere from a few gallons of gasoline, up to hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel. Examples include collisions, groundings, fires, and sinkings. Bilge discharges and mishaps during refueling operations, are the most common type of spill involving these craft. Incidents like these have a negative impact on resources in waterbodies.

Other Spill Risks: Other potential oil spill risks in the area include dam turbine mechanical failures, road run-off during rain events, land-based or nearshore construction activities where heavy equipment is being operated, and the migration of spilled oil through soil on lands adjacent to the river or along creek or stream banks.

This section is purposely broad in scope and should not be considered comprehensive. Some of the sensitive resources described in this section cannot be addressed in Response Strategies and Priorities because it is not possible to conduct effective response activities in these locations. Additional information from private organizations or federal, state, tribal, and local government agencies should also be sought during spills.

This material is presented with enough detail to give general information about the area during the first phase of a spill response. During an actual incident, more information about resources at risk will be available from the Environmental Unit in the Planning Section.

Note: specific resource concerns related to areas that already have designated protection strategies may be found in the “Resources at Risk” column of the matrix describing the individual strategies.

The information provided in this section can be used in:

• Assisting the Environmental Unit (EU) and Operations in developing ad hoc response strategies.
• Providing resource-at-risk “context” to responders, clean-up workers, and others during the initial phase of a spill response in the GRP area.
• Briefing responders and incident command staff that may be unfamiliar with sensitive resource concerns in the GRP area.
• Providing background information for personnel involved in media presentations and public outreach during a spill incident.
• Providing information on benthic and water column species or cultural resources present to assist in planning for oils with the potential to sink or submerge.

Several of the species found in this area have been classified under the Federal Endangered Species Act or by the Washington State Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Classification types are:

• Federal Endangered (FE)
• Federal Threatened (FT)
• Federal Candidate (FC)
• State Endangered (SE)
• State Threatened (ST)
• State Sensitive (SS)

Federal and State Threatened, Endangered, and Sensitive species that may occur within this area, at some time of the year, include:

Birds:

• Common loon [SS]
• Marbled murrelet [FT/SE]
• Northern spotted owl [FT/SE]
• Sandhill crane [SE]
• Streaked horned lark [FT/SE]
• Yellow-billed cuckoo [FT/SE]

Mammals:

• Columbian white-tailed deer [FT/SE]
• Western gray squirrel [ST]

Fish:

• Bull trout [FT]
• Chinook salmon (Lower Columbia River) [FT]
• Chum salmon (Columbia River) [FT]
• Coho salmon (Lower Columbia River) [FT]
• Eulachon [FT]
• Sockeye salmon (Snake River) [FE]
• Steelhead (Lower Columbia River) [FT]
• Green sturgeon [FT]

 Amphibians/Reptiles:

• Northern leopard frog [SE]
• Oregon spotted frog [FT/SE]
• Western pond turtle [FE]

Plants:

• Bradshaw’s desert-parsley [FE]
• Golden paintbrush [FT]
• Kincaid’s lupine [FT]
• Nelson’s checker-mallow [FT]
• Water howellia [FT]

Critical habitats:

Critical habitats are the specific areas occupied by an endangered or threatened species at the time it was listed that contain the physical or biological features that are essential to the conservation of that species – and that may need special management or protection. Critical habitat may also include areas that were not occupied by the species at the time of listing but are essential to its conservation.

The following species have federally designated critical habitats within this area:

• Bull trout
• Chum salmon (Columbia River)
• Coho salmon (lower Columbia River)
• Chinook salmon (lower Columbia River)
• Eulachon
• Steelhead (lower Columbia River)

General Resource Concerns

Habitats:

• Wetlands in the lower reaches of this region are freshwater although tidally influenced. These wetlands range from seasonal open marshes to forested swamps along rivers and streams. All wetland types support a diverse array of amphibian, bird, insect, fish, and wildlife species.
• The rivers and streams throughout this region provide spawning and rearing habitat for various salmonid species. The associated riparian scrub and woodlands play a crucial role in supporting wildlife and an abundant, diverse passerine bird species’ breeding, migrating, and overwintering habitat. Stream mouths are concentration areas for fish and are feeding areas for a variety of birds.
• Side channels and impounded areas provide feeding and resting areas for waterfowl and herons and are important rearing areas for juvenile fish.
• Islands provide important nesting habitat for a variety of bird species, as well as habitat for a variety of mammals. Resident fish are likely present in most streams.
• Shallow subsurface habitats occur in this region, including the delta of the Cowlitz River to the Mayfield dam, the Lewis River from its mouth to the Merwin dam, and all the associated tributaries.

Specific Geographic Areas of Concern

Cowlitz River (Figure 1)

1. Lewis and Clark State Park: Boone Creek, a salmonid spawning stream, runs through the park and is a tributary to Lacamas Creek. This 621-acre park is in one of the last major stands of old-growth forests in the state. Coniferous trees, streams, wetlands, dense vegetation, and wet prairie comprise the park environment along with a vast stand of rare old-growth forest.
2. Mouth of Blue Creek and vicinity (Cowlitz ~RM 42-47): Waterfowl concentration area. Cavity-nesting wood ducks and mergansers in old river channels. Beaver dams and flooded willow areas. Salmonid spawning stream and juvenile salmonid rearing habitat in off-river channels.
3. Mouth of Olequa and Lacamas Creeks and vicinity (Cowlitz River ~RM 24.5 to RM 30): Pastures and emergent wetlands in the Cowlitz River floodplain and nearby ponds support regular large concentrations of wintering waterfowl, geese, and osprey nesting. Salmonid spawning stream and juvenile salmonid rearing habitat in off-river channels. Resident fish.
4. Toutle River (Cowlitz River ~RM 20/Toutle RM 3 to RM 4.5): Snag rich area used by bald eagles [FCo/SS]. Salmonid spawning stream and juvenile salmonid rearing habitat in off-river channels. Resident fish.
5. Arkansas, Delameter, and Whittle Creeks (Cowlitz River ~RM 17): Wetlands across from Castle Rock provide habitat for cavity-nesting ducks. Emergent and scrub shrub wetlands and flood plains provide regular large concentrations of wintering waterfowl including Canada geese. Salmonid spawning stream and juvenile salmonid rearing habitat in off-river channels.
6. Pleasant Hill (Cowlitz River ~RM 8.5): An unnamed stream and associated wetland complex between I-5 and Pleasant Hill Road near the town of Lexington. Wood ducks and other cavity-nesting ducks regularly inhabit these areas.

Columbia River (Figure 2)

7. Carrolls Channel and Owl Creek Mouth (Columbia River ~RM 69 to 71): Concentrations of waterfowl including swans, ducks, and geese. Seabirds, harbor seals, and California sea lions coincide with winter run of Pacific eulachon smelt [FT] in Carrolls Channel. Heron rookery, small-eared owls, and wetlands in the lower reach of Owl Creek near I-5. Salmonid spawning stream and juvenile salmonid rearing habitat in off-river channels.
8. Mouth of Kalama River (Columbia River ~RM 73): Concentrations of waterfowl including swans, ducks, and geese. Seabirds, harbor seals and California sea lions coincide with winter run of Pacific eulachon smelt [FT] near mouth of river. Salmonid spawning stream and juvenile salmonid rearing habitat in off-river channels.
9. Martin/Burke Islands and Vicinity (Columbia River ~RM 79-81): Riparian habitat. Juvenile salmonid rearing habitat in off-river channels. Concentration area for breeding, migrating and wintering waterfowl. Sandhill crane [SE]. Area supports cavity-nesting ducks.
10. Horseshoe Lake (and vicinity) near Woodland (Lewis River ~RM 6): Cavity-nesting duck concentration in the slough, wetlands, and riparian areas in this area.
11. Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge (Columbia River ~ RM 87-92): Concentration area for migrating and wintering waterfowl, shorebirds, and Sandhill cranes [SE]. Resident nesting songbirds, waterfowl, raptors and herons. Riparian habitat. Salmonid spawning stream and juvenile salmonid rearing habitat in off-river channels. Audubon Important Bird Area.
12. Frenchman’s Bar/Shillapoo Wildlife Area/Vancouver Lake (~RM 96-99): Riparian habitat, pasture, and agricultural land that supports wintering and migrating concentrations of waterfowl, shorebirds, Sandhill cranes [SE], and common loons [SS]. Juvenile salmonid rearing habitat in off-river channels. Shillapoo Vancouver Wildlife Area (~2,300 acres) includes one of the largest great blue heron rookeries on the lower Columbia River. Vancouver Lake Regional Park (~190 acres) has 2.5 miles of publicly accessible shoreline and is also used by wildlife and migratory waterfowl.