Posted on February 11, 2026
By Henry Brannan / Murrow News
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted an environmental approval last month to a project to dredge a 1,000-foot-wide deep water ship turn around in the Columbia River near the Port of Kalama and expand Longview’s existing turning basin.
The environmental approval came despite the agency’s environmental review finding it would harm endangered salmon species. The greenlight leaves the longtime effort with just two more steps: Secure approval from Congress, then win construction funding from them.
The project is aimed at allowing the next generation of gigantic grain and bulk cargo ships to better use the two ports, and to reduce congestion on the federally-designated marine highway. Bulk export operations depend on a massive scale of exports, terminals and ships to remain profitable.
Port officials say the new federal investment will enable the region’s continued success in bulk export. Staff at the ports of Longview and Kalama celebrated the freshly released report.
“Once completed, the project will reduce navigational congestion and inefficiencies while improving safety and economic benefits for ports, shippers and communities throughout the Lower Columbia region,” said Dan Polacek, who leads communications for the Port of Kalama, in a statement.
The report recommends the most extensive version of the project as opposed to more limited alternatives.
The report found the project will not significantly impact things like wetlands, water quality, fish and resources promised to regional Native nations in treaties.
Despite that, the review said the project “will likely adversely affect, but will not jeopardize the continued existence of” several endangered species of fish including salmon, steelhead, smelt and sturgeon.
The potential 1,000-foot Lower Martin’s Bar turning basin would stretch about half the width of the river. Dredging would deepen the Columbia to 43 feet through the basins. Currently the river in the area ranges from knee-deep near the shore to 30-something feet near the shipping channel and 43 feet deep in the channel, navigation charts show.
The turning basin project received a separate economic greenlight from the Corps late last year in a report that found the basins would generate about $7.3 million a year while costing about $2.3 million to maintain over the same period. The economic greenlight was one of only two granted anywhere in the country last year, Corps records show.
“It just makes us that much more competitive and keeps those costs down,” said Neil Maunu, who runs the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association. The advocacy organization has made the project a priority in the coming year of legislative advocacy.
Of the project’s initial $21.9 million build cost, the ports would be on the hook for about $5.5 million. The federal government would pay the remaining $16.4 million.
Congress may have a chance to approve it this year in a potential Water Resource Development Act, which is how the Army Corps is authorized to do projects. After that, Congress would only need to allocate funding before construction could start.
In January, Congress allocated about $1.6 million to the Corps for the preconstruction engineering and design of the basins, budget documents show.
The funding comes just months after Canadian agricultural products giant Nutrien announced Longview was its preferred site for a $500 million to $1 billion dollar fertilizer export terminal.
Canada, where Nutrien is based, has fought the company’s move, attempting to get it to build the facility there despite recent shipping industry struggles.
