Projects & Programs
Willapa River Restoration Project: Dike Removal and Saltmarsh Restoration
Restoration in coastal areas may cause unintended landscape-scale effects by exposing sensitive marine or estuarine organisms to toxic residues. PNNL developed and tested a general approach to this problem in the Willapa River Estuary Restoration Project, Willapa Bay, Washington. The project would remove a century-old dike to permit tidal inundation of a grazed pasture and create 450 acres of tidal marsh upriver of economically significant oyster beds.
The objectives of this study were to determine, based on the results of pre-restoration field sampling and analysis, whether:
1. Soils and waters of the site currently presented an adverse human health or environmental risk
2. The restoration project might result in adverse human health or environmental risk associated with release of contaminants from the study area into the Willapa River and Bay.