Columbia ports agree on dredging mitigation plan

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Lower Columbia River ports plan to create 128 acres of wetlands on Cottonwood Island to compensate for ecological damage caused by dredging.

The plan was announced Wednesday by six ports in Washington and Oregon and the Corps of Engineers.

The wetlands will mitigate damage from the dredging under way to deepen the Columbia River channel by 3 feet from Portland to the mouth of the river.