Posted on February 9, 2026
CHINOOK — It’s unglamorous, but dredging is a sorely necessary tool for the economic health of ports of any size and scope — including the Port of Chinook.
After a prolonged period of setbacks, the port has secured a pair of funding victories at both the state and federal levels. It includes receiving $500,000 in state funding that has allowed the port to purchase its own dredging equipment and put it to use in its marina boat basin, thanks in part to the help of community volunteers.
The port will also be the beneficiary of more than $2.5 million in federal funding for dredging as part of the batch of spending bills that were recently passed by Congress. These developments, according to Port of Chinook Commissioner Nicholas Matson, will positively affect port operations and overall community well-being.
“The dredge is directly connected to revenue increases, seafood market growth, job growth and public enjoyment,” he said.
Securing state funds
In 2024, Matson said he “began kicking around a plan to find money to buy us our own maintenance dredge.” Heading into the 2025 session, he and the director of the Washington Public Ports Association, Eric Fitch, brainstormed and landed on submitting a request for funding to be included in the legislature’s capital budget.
After holding “many” meetings with members of the 19th Legislative District delegation, who represent Pacific County and other Southwest Washington communities in Olympia, the request for $500,000 was sponsored by state Sen. Jeff Wilson (R-Longview).
After completing the application at the ports association’s Olympia office, Matson spent months lobbying legislators in both chambers to ensure the proposal was included in the capital budget — including testifying to the senate’s ways and means committee. Lily Wilson-Codega, a lobbyist for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, also assisted in lobbying for the funds when Matson wasn’t in Olympia.
After the funds had been included and the capital budget had been passed and signed into law, Matson set out on finding an adequate model and manufacturer. After one had been found and port staff processed the invoicing, the Washington State Department of Commerce distributed the funds.
Federal dollars
The port is also in line to receive nearly $3 million in federal funding as part of the recent spending bills that Congress passed in recent weeks.
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) announced Feb. 2 that the Port of Chinook will receive $2.7 million to fund marina dredging at the port. It is one of 50 community projects she submitted requests for throughout the state that are receiving federal dollars as part of the passage of five spending bills.
In a news release, Cantwell said the dredging will support recreational boating and commercial fishing in Baker Bay, the Lower Columbia River and adjacent Pacific Ocean waters. Conflicting dredging calendars with the Port of Ilwaco, she said, led to the interior marina moorage area of the port not being dredged for more than 10 years, “with boats left in the mud at low tides.”
Funding for dredging had also been requested by Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Skamania), who said in a Feb. 6 release that the funds will be used to remove 65,000 yards of material from the marina to ensure vessels can transit to and from moorage slips and wharf hoists. “Certain slips in the port are unusable at low tides, threatening commercial access, and port tenants have noted a two-year window remains before they must seek another cargo transit port, threatening the local economy and community.”
According to the congresswoman’s office, the dredging will allow the port to protect between 100-150 jobs and $50 million in annual catch volume, as well as 40-50 new jobs and $12 million in new product volume.
“It takes the right person at the right time to bring things across the finish line. Marie was that person by securing $2.7 million in funds for dredging the Port of Chinook,” said Bryan McHale, a member of the Columbia River Crab Fishermen Association, in a statement provided by Gluesenkamp Perez’s office. “We also need to thank Senator Cantwell for advocating for the Port of Chinook as well.”
In another statement provided by the congresswoman’s office, Matson said the funds and the major dredging event they are supporting “will be the source of a local economic renaissance and will keep our Port competitive for many years.”
Silty situation
It’s a silty situation, but someone has to do it.
The marina in Chinook was last dredged four years ago, a task Port of Chinook Director Richard Wright considers critical to preventing the port from suffocating from the millions of tons of sediment pouring from the nearby Columbia annually.
“And it was only the main fairway, it was very limited. And then the dredge sunk, so we went through the process of getting this new equipment,” Wright said Thursday, Feb. 5, standing before their newly-acquired Mud Cat diesel-auger dredge, a midwest dredge company born to solve the silt issues plaguing the Minnesota lakeshore.
Securing the new dredge was “critical” to maintaining the port and resuscitating parts that have become usable due to silt.
“We initiated the process, got the grant and got the equipment in the water within 12 months,” Wright said. “It was absolutely critical.”
The new dredge cost $468,000 (of the $500,000 grant), leaving some funds to improve the functionality of the dredge.
“We have a little money left on our [$500,000] grant, which we’re working with the Department of Commerce to add outboard motors,” Wright said.
The dredge is operated by a specially-trained crew but is maneuvered into place by cables, a task undertaken by a revolving crew of volunteers including Jason Jennings, Nick Matson, Julie Rhoads, Sean Moretz and Tom Newman.
The new dredge arrived shortly before Christmas, leaving a short window of time to begin some minor dredging before the window would close in February. Each year, the Washington Department of Ecology permits dredging in Chinook from Nov. 1 to Feb. 15, to avoid impacting salmonid migration and herring spawning.
“We had a very short window this season, we can only dredge from the last week of January through Feb. 15, but we were adamant that we were going to do it,” Wright said.
More ambitious dredging will be undertaken in the future, including free up recreational slips that are currently silted in, potentially resulting in as much as a 20% increase in monthly revenue for the port once in full use.
Deepening, electrifying and icing the marina
Progress in improving the Chinook harbor has been a focus, Wright said, including enhancing the navigability, access and usability of the port, with the goal of maintaining a commercial and recreational fleet among their 300 slips.
The current focus of the dredging has been an area near the boat launch, including deepening the channel around ‘A’ dock, near the core of the commercial fleet.
“This area was only about three feet deep at a zero tide, which isn’t deep enough for these big vessels to get in here,” Wright said. “In just a week, we’ve gotten it down to seven feet deep. We’re going to go to eight feet this year, but ultimately we’ll go down to 10, when we can dredge for a full season.”
Future improvements include dock repairs and an electrical expansion, including furthering power to finger docks and adding a commercial ice capacity on pier two, capable of producing up to 16 tons of ice daily, with the goal to have it ‘up and running’ by May, ahead of the commercial tuna season.
