This project is an Estuarine Culvert Assessment / Design project that will take place in estuarine waters within high tier watersheds within Willapa Bay. The landowner of these culverts is Pacific County and they are very supportive of this project. Estuarine culverts do not have a SSHEAR Division protocol for Assessment; it is recommended that a certified engineer make the barrier status determination. After completion of the assessment the top five priority culverts will undergo a conceptual design phase for future implementation. A qualified engineer will conduct all of the estuarine culvert assessment and design work. After the estuarine culverts have been assessed and barrier status is completed the engineer and PCD will conduct a field /map based (local TAG and SSHEAR Approved) survey to prioritize the estuarine culverts. This project will focus on estuarine culverts in high Tier Watersheds (25 total Culverts). Medium and Low tier watersheds have been left out of this project due to their questionable benefit to salmon. The Watersheds that work will take place include the High tier Watersheds - Naselle, Willapa, (25 Culverts). Out of the 25 identified high tier watershed estuarine culverts there is no knowledge of their fish passability status. Culvert barriers have been identified throughout WRIA #24 as being a High tier Limiting factor, estuarine CVs are listed by CRA 2007 as being a major data gap.
