The $14.4 billion Interstate Bridge project received a federal record of decision on Wednesday, a major step that allows the project to move toward permitting, hiring a contractor and building the Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River.

The decision completes the project’s lengthy federal environmental review process, which encompassed not just air and water but also cultural resources, safety and freight mobility, among myriad other factors. A final environmental Impact Statement was published April 17.

Now, the real work begins.

The Interstate Bridge program is preparing a request for qualifications to be issued in coming weeks to begin selecting a contractor, setting up a high-stakes bidding process likely to involve major international contractors and local partners.

A request for proposals will be issued later this year, with a contractor expected to be hired in 2027, the Interstate Bridge Program office stated.

For the construction industry, the project will be the largest in the Portland region in decades and dwarfs even other major infrastructure builds such as the $2.15 billion Portland International Airport expansion.

Contractors groups, including the Associated General Contractors Oregon-Columbia chapter, hailed the federal decision, which came from the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration.

“AGC is very pleased with the decision to proceed with the Interstate Bridge replacement project,” said Josh Tompkins, CEO of the AGC Oregon-Columbia chapter, via text message.

“The project is critical for the future economic health of our region’s economy, will put thousands of Oregonians and Washingtonians to work and will inject very-welcome funds into our area,” Tompkins added.

The project comes amid a tepid time for the construction industry. Construction spending nationally fell 2.7 percent year to date through May, compared to the same period in 2025, according to Census Bureau data released Wednesday.

Highway construction held steady, with spending rising 0.6 percent in May to an annual rate of $150.6 billion.

The project involves not just the replacement for the aging twin-span Interstate Bridge, which was first built in 1917, with the second span added in 1958. It also calls for highway widening and expanding interchanges throughout a 5-mile corridor spanning Oregon and Washington. Construction will cause disruptions near Delta Park and Vanport and Hayden Island on the Oregon side, and the Vancouver waterfront and downtown on the Washington side. The work will require a massive influx of construction labor.

“With this approval, our focus is squarely on execution — advancing procurement and ensuring the systems and structures that mega-projects of this scale demand are in place as we transition to construction,” said Washington Transportation Secretary Julie Meredith.

Critics have questioned how the Oregon and Washington transportation departments will fully fund the project.

“What’s missing is still a plan to pay for the whole thing,” said Joe Cortright, an economist and founder of City Lab, a Portland-based think tank. “The project is moving ahead, they’re going to spend $5 billion, then they’re going to come back and say, ‘hey, you owe me another $10 billion to finish the job.’”

Cortright noted that the project is overwhelmingly planned by consultants for the Oregon Department of Transportation and Washington State Department of Transportation.

“They’re substantially independent from the two state DOTs, and they’ve designed a project that will go on for the next 20 years,” Cortright said. “As a semi-retired consultant, I have a sneaking admiration for the people who have lined up work for the next 20 years.”

Nevertheless, state leaders in Oregon and Washington lauded the federal announcement. After the failure of the Columbia River Crossing more than a decade ago, it’s looking increasingly likely that today’s state leaders may get this project built.

“Replacing the Interstate Bridge will have lasting benefits for our communities and region for decades,” Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said in a prepared statement. “From improving safety and resilience for the region to creating tens of thousands of jobs and supporting local businesses, this project is key to our region’s growth. This milestone is proof of what Oregon and Washington can accomplish when we work together toward a shared goal.”

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson also said the project is “essential to Washington and Oregon.”

Interim IBR Program Administrator Carley Francis said the federal amended record of decision reflects years of study. “We now get to go do the work of actually building this bridge,” she said.

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The proposed Hood River-White Salmon Interstate Bridge replacement project has received federal approval to advance to final design and construction permitting.

The $1.12 billion Columbia River bridge project spanning Oregon and Washington received a record of decision on Tuesday from the Federal Highway Administration, closing out National Environmental Policy Act obligations.

“What it means is that we have finalized the NEPA process and the project can move forward into final design right away and construction,” Michael Shannon, bridge replacement project director, said in an interview on Wednesday.

Kiewit Corp., the project’s design-build contractor, is on track to hit the 60 percent design level next summer, with a final set of construction plans expected to be ready in spring 2027, Shannon said.

If anticipated funding falls into place, construction would follow in October 2027, Shannon said.

“That is dependent on securing the final federal funding for the project,” he said.

The project team is awaiting a decision on Bridge Investment Program funds. Project officials have requested $530 million from the program, which is administered by the Federal Highway Administration.

The total price tag includes planning and construction and encompasses about $180 million in contingency funding, Shannon said.

This bridge replacement project appears to be moving smoothly toward construction while other major infrastructure plans have been stymied by delayed or canceled funding.

As part of major legislation, President Donald Trump earlier this year rescinded $412.5 million for the Interstate 5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project. Other projects across the nation have likewise not received expected funding.

Shannon said he had no concerns about the Trump administration’s willingness to fund the Hood River–White Salmon Interstate Bridge replacement.

“We got notification that we met the screening criteria for projects under the new administration,” he said.

The project was “highly recommended,” Shannon said. “The project (team) has done everything it can to be positioned to accept award,” he added.

The Hood River-White Salmon Interstate Bridge proposal meets a key threshold, Shannon said: Requested federal funding is less than 50 percent of the project’s total cost. Oregon and Washington have each agreed to chip in $125 million.

The new bridge would replace the existing span, which opened in December 1924. The new bridge would sit slightly west of the current bridge and include two 12-foot vehicle lanes, two 8-foot shoulders and a 12-foot shared-use path for bicycles and pedestrians. Vehicles would be tolled.

The proposed bridge’s 90-foot vertical clearance has been preliminarily approved by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The replacement bridge “would meet current design standards to be seismically sound under a 1,000-year seismic event and operational under a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake,” the record of decision states.

Indeed, seismic concerns were a driving force behind the project. The current bridge sits on a sandy, silty layer that is vulnerable to liquefaction.

“It is more susceptible to earthquake than we had thought before,” Shannon said.

The bridge project exemplifies the public-sector work that has buoyed the construction industry while interest rates remain high, private lenders exercise caution, and some types of commercial real estate suffer from oversupply and high vacancy rates.

“Infrastructure funding has been a major source of stability for the construction industry over the past few years,” Macrina Wilkins, a researcher for the Associated General Contractors of America, wrote in an email on Wednesday. “Bridge, highway and other projects supported by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (and related federal programs) have kept contractors busy and work flowing into the pipeline, even as concerns about labor shortages and economic uncertainty persisted.”

Contractors are “eager to undertake” projects like the Hood River–White Salmon Interstate Bridge replacement “especially in the face of softer private demand,” Wilkins added.

Still, Wilkins stated, contractors should prepare for a leveling off in public infrastructure work: Highway and street spending fell 0.9 percent nationally in August, compared to a year earlier.

“Infrastructure investments are still supporting the industry, just not at the unusually elevated pace we saw earlier in the (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) rollout,” Wilkins wrote.

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SEATTLE — For much of the 20th century, a sprawling complex in the desert of southeastern Washington turned out most of the plutonium used in the nation’s nuclear arsenal, from the first atomic bomb to the arms race that fueled the Cold War.

Now, after decades of planning and billions of dollars of investment, liquid nuclear and chemical waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is being turned into a much safer substance: glass.

State regulators on Wednesday issued the final permit needed for workers to remove more waste from often-leaky underground tanks, mix it in a crucible with additives, and heat it above 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The mixture then cools in stainless steel vats and solidifies as glass — still radioactive, but far more stable in storage, and less likely to seep into the soil or the Columbia River nearby.

The long-awaited development is a key step in cleaning up the nation’s most polluted nuclear waste site. Construction of the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant began in 2002.

“We are at the precipice of a really significant moment in Hanford’s history,” Casey Sixkiller, director of the Washington State Department of Ecology, said in a video interview.

The roughly 600-square-mile reservation is near the confluence of two of the Pacific Northwest’s most significant rivers, the Columbia and the Snake, in an area important to Native American tribes for millennia.

Wartime planners selected the area because it was isolated and had access to cold water and hydroelectric power. In early 1943, the U.S. government seized the land for a secret project, displacing roughly 2,000 residents, including farmers.

Tens of thousands of workers then responded to newspaper ads around the country promising good jobs to support the Allied effort to defeat Nazi Germany and Japan in World War II, and a new company town arose in the desert.

Most of the workers had no idea they were involved in building the world’s first full-scale plutonium production reactor until the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, and President Harry S. Truman announced to the world the existence of the Manhattan Project.

Hanford would grow to include nine nuclear reactors churning out plutonium for the nation’s nuclear arsenal. The last of these was shut down in 1987. Two years later, Washington state, the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reached an agreement for site cleanup.

Seven of the nine reactors have been “cocooned” to prevent contamination from escaping until radiation levels drop enough to allow for the structures to be dismantled, near the end of this century.

There are also 177 giant underground tanks that hold some 56 million gallons of highly radioactive and chemically hazardous waste. Those tanks are well past their projected lifespan of 25 years. More than one-third have leaked in the past, and three are currently leaking.

During Hanford’s years producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, effluent was dumped directly into the Columbia River and into ineffective containment ponds, polluting the surrounding groundwater and contaminating the food chain of wildlife that depends on it, according to a 2013 government assessment.

Now Hanford is focused on cleanup, with an annual budget of around $3 billion.

Encasing radioactive waste in glass — called “vitrification” — has been recognized since at least the 1980s as an effective method for neutralizing it. There are plans for two facilities at Hanford: the one now approved to process low-level nuclear waste, and an adjacent facility (now under construction) to handle high-level waste.

More than $30 billion has been spent on the plants so far. The U.S. Department of Energy, which oversees Hanford, faced an Oct. 15 deadline to convert some of its stored waste into glass, per a cleanup schedule and consent decree involving the EPA and Washington state.

The first waste to be mixed with glass will include pretreated radioactive cesium and strontium, according to a Department of Energy statement.

The department fired Roger Jarrell, its main overseer of the Hanford cleanup, earlier this month, prompting concerns about the Trump administration’s commitment. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, said Energy Secretary Chris Wright told her by phone that he was looking to stall the vitrification operations.

That prompted outrage from Washington state officials. Gov. Bob Ferguson, joined at a news conference by tribal leaders and labor representatives, threatened legal action.

But Wright insisted the department had changed nothing, and on Sept. 17, a deputy signed paperwork allowing vitrification to proceed following approvals by state regulators.

“Although there are challenges, we are committed to beginning operations by October 15, 2025,” Wright stated last month. “As always, we are prioritizing the health and safety of both the workforce and the community as we work to meet our nation’s need to safely and efficiently dispose of nuclear waste.”

On Wednesday, with state approval issued, Ferguson urged the Energy Department to follow through.

“Our state has done our part to start up the Waste Treatment Plant,” Ferguson stated. “Now the federal government needs to live up to its responsibilities and clean up what they left behind.”

In a statement issued ahead of the government shutdown, the Department of Energy said it would be able to continue all its operations for one to five days. After that, the department’s work will cease unless operations are “related to the safety of human life and the protection of property.”

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Astoria’s Pier 39 has hit the market, offering more than 110,000 square feet of mixed-use space on the Columbia River.

The property houses 26 tenants, including Rogue Pier 39 Public House, a coffee shop, a financial planner and the Hanthorn Cannery Museum, in a cluster of low-slung buildings with reddish-orange roofs east of downtown Astoria. The commercial space is 42 percent occupied, according to CBRE, the listing agent.

The listing also encompasses an adjacent 2.06-acre parcel. The land is zoned for multifamily, hotel, retail or mixed-use development, and is the last undeveloped site of its kind in Astoria, according to CBRE.

The parcels are located within an opportunity zone and an enterprise zone, offering tax benefits to developers and investors. The site attracts 50,000 visitors a month on average, according to CBRE.

Longtime owner Floyd Holcom is selling the property. An Astoria resident and U.S. Army special forces veteran, Holcom reached out to Wes Bochner, a Portland-based CBRE broker and U.S. Navy veteran, to sell the property. Erin Smith and Trent Steeves are also managing the listing for CBRE.

Holcom purchased the property in 2002 and owns it through a limited liability company, NBSD.

The pier traces Astoria’s economic transformation from reliance on natural resources to a focus on tourism. The pier was home to Hanthorn Cannery, the first and largest tuna cannery in Astoria, which later became a Bumble Bee Tuna cannery.

CBRE has not published a listing price for the property.

“Comparable properties in San Francisco and Southern California have traded at 10x valuations of where we expect Pier 39 to sell, reflecting the massive investment upside with lease-up and redevelopment of remaining original cannery spaces,” Bochner stated in a news release.

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The Metro Council last week added three Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) projects to the 2024-2027 Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program (MTIP) to meet federal project delivery requirements. The Interstate Bridge replacement project is in the design phase; construction is expected to begin next year.

The council voted 6-1 on Thursday to approve the amendment (Mary Nolan voted no). The item will next go before the Oregon Transportation Commission on July 31. The commission’s approval is required for authorization of the funding for the three projects. If the commission were to deny the amendment, the Metro Council’s decision would be considered invalid and would not be sent to the Federal Highway Administration for final approval.

The June 2025 MTIP contains three projects related to the effort to replace the Interstate Bridge and improve related interchanges. One is a modification to the I-5 Columbia River (Interstate) Bridge project and two new projects are related to tolling and the construction of the replacement bridge. The combined amendment is $1.9 billion, said Ted Leybold, Metro transportation policy director.

The I-5 Columbia River (Interstate) Bridge project contains the nonconstruction phases for the IBR program. Funding for the planning and initial preliminary engineering phase was obligated prior to development of the 2024-2027 MTIP. Planning and design are under way; the work includes right-of-way and utility relocation activities for early construction packages, as well as continuing overall program management and development work. The total MTIP programming cost has increased from $103 million to approximately $554.6 million.

One new project for pre-completion of tolling infrastructure calls for installing signage, related structures, and electrical systems in preparation of new tolling operations on and near the Interstate Bridge. The total MTIP programming cost is approximately $24.6 million.

The other new project added to the MTIP is for the replacement of the Interstate Bridge. It will advance post-NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) design and construction activities for the new bridge over the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington, downstream of the existing structure. The work will support the construction of two new bridges to accommodate highway, transit and active transportation modes. The total MTIP programming amount is approximately $1.5 billion.

Tolling rates will be set by the Oregon Transportation Commission and the Washington State Transportation Commission. Pre-completion tolling on the Interstate Bridge is expected to start in 2027.

Ray Mabey, assistant program manager for the IBR program and the state bridge engineer for the Oregon Department of Transportation, said tolling rates will be variable depending on time of day. IBR program staffers are studying possible tolling rates; all scenarios include a discount for low-income drivers.

According to the , the total estimated project cost is from $5 billion to $7.5 billion.

Full project completion is expected to require 10 to 15 years.

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Project name: The Springs at The WaterfrontLocation: Vancouver, Washington

Completion: July 2024

Size: 465,000 square feet

Owner/Developer: The Springs Living

Architect: GBD Architects

Interior Designer: GBD Architects

Engineers: KPFF, Ocean Park Mechanical, Prairie Electric

General Contractor: Howard S. Wright, a Balfour Beatty company

Submitting Company: Howard S. Wright, a Balfour Beatty company

Other Key Participants: Pacific Medical Buildings (development partner), Harrison Street Real Estate Capital (equity partner), City of Vancouver, Interface Engineering, Lango Hansen

Subcontractors: Alliance Laundry Systems, Anderson Poolworks, Bargreen Ellingson of Oregon, Building Material Specialties, Building Specialties Northwest, Cash’s Drapery, Center Pointe Signs, Chown Portland, Dallas Glass, DeaMor Associates, DE-EL Enterprises, Dero, Don Frank Floors, Eagle Striping Services, ES&A Sign & Awning, F.D. Thomas, Fireside Contracting Services, Floor Solutions, Flynn BEC, Foster Bray, Fought & Co., Conco Concrete, Greenhaven Landscapes, Hospitality Services, Infinity Images, Interior Technology, J&S Masonry, J.S. Perrott & Co., Knife River Corp.-Northwest, Kraft Screens & Window Washington, Lanz Cabinet Shop, Legend Custom Woodworking, Mincey Marble Manufacturing, Ocean Park Mechanical, Otis Elevator, Overhead Door Co. of Portland, Pacific Stair, Performance Contracting, Prairie Electric, Precision Rail of Oregon, Pro-Bel Enterprises, Proclean, Safemark Systems, Schonert & Associates, Sign Wizards, Standard TV & Appliance, Starline Windows USA, Superior Fence, Tapani, Teufel Nursery, Viking Automatic Sprinkler, Washington Commercial Painters, Wessco Equipment, Williamsen & Bleid

The Springs at The Waterfront rises 12 stories along the Columbia River, representing a bold reimagining of senior living in an urban setting.

The 250-residence community seamlessly integrates Independent Living, Assisted Living and Memory Care across approximately 465,000 square feet, with two levels of underground parking. The project achieved LEED Gold and Fitwel 3-star certifications.

The project has attracted the youngest demographic The Springs Living has seen.

The community faced unique challenges during development. Located less than a mile from Pearson Field airport, builders encountered strict FAA height limitations, ultimately setting the building just 6 inches below regulatory restrictions. During excavation, crews uncovered contaminated soils and unexpected buried structures from the site’s industrial past. Workers removed 2,029 tons of concrete foundations, 187 wooden piles and 267 tons of steel. An 1889 brick foundation from the DuBois Brothers Sawmill was cataloged by the State Department of Archaeology before removal.

The building’s innovative design places Memory Care residents on upper floors, providing equitable access to Columbia River views. A dedicated wellness suite on the second floor houses fitness classes, physical therapy services and an elevated pool with distinctive privacy screens that maintain river views while blocking visibility from neighboring buildings.

Departing from traditional senior dining models, The Springs features “Fancho’s Public House,” a bistro-heavy concept creating a casual atmosphere where residents can “come as they are.”

The exterior facade combines masonry, dark bronze, and wood tones in patterns inspired by sunset reflections on the Columbia River. Interior spaces feature subtle whites, grays and beiges complemented by natural Oregon oak and stone textures.

Thoughtfully selected materials like Knotwood, an aluminum cladding system that replicates wood while offering superior durability, allow the building to withstand challenging waterfront conditions.

Residents enjoy a ninth-floor wine bar, outdoor roof deck with garden plots, putting green and dog run. Ground-floor spaces connect to waterfront paths, playgrounds and outdoor dining areas.

Two natural gas-fueled rooftop generators augment emergency power systems, allowing residents to shelter in place during emergencies while maintaining essential services.

While the project did not include specific MWESB participation requirements, Howard S. Wright and the project team remained committed to providing opportunities for diverse firms. Team members participated in various outreach efforts at local tradeshows and association events including PBDG, OAME and MCIP. As a result of these efforts, more than $5.4 million in work was awarded to 18 MWESB subcontractors and vendors.

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Project name: Terminal 1 Block A & C, Port of Vancouver USA

Location: Vancouver, Washington

Completion: 646,835 square feet

Size: October 2024

Landowner/Lessee: Port of Vancouver USA

Developer/Lessor: Lincoln Property Company

Architects: West of West Architecture & Design (design architect) DLR Group (executive architect)

Interior Designer: West of West Architecture & Design

Engineers: Mackenzie, Piper Mechanical, KPFF

General Contractor: Robertson & Olson Construction

Submitting Company: DLR Group

Other Key Participants: City of Vancouver, Portland Street Art Alliance and artists Jeremy Nichols, Hayden Senter, Ana Gabriela

Other Associates/Consultants: Cascade Electrical, GeoDesign NV5, Kittelson & Associates, Walter P. Moore, BEE Engineers, Brightworks, PLACE, Code Consultants

Subcontractors: 2 Down Services, Able Fence, Anderson Specialties, Axiom Division 7, Basco Appliances, Blankenship Equipment Repair, Building Material Specialties, Cascade Electrical, CDI Blinds, Cedar Landscape Construction, Conco, Concrete Designs, Consurco, Cornerstone Masonry, Cosco Fire Protection, Ecoglo, Flash Parking, Floor Solutions, Ground Control Systems, Huntco, Interior Technology, LaRusso Concrete, LCDA, LJP Construction, Mission Glass, Mt. Hood Steel, Overhead Door, Pacific Foundation, Pacific Stair, Piper Mechanical, Pro-Bel Enterprises, Sawtooth Caulking, Schindler Elevator, Sign Wizards, Skyline Sheet Metal, Sound Vanguard Solutions, Spectrum Woodworking & Interiors, Sunset Stucco, Vancouver Paint Group, Vancouver Paving, Vancouver Sign, Western Construction Specialties, Western Partitions, You & I Construction

The Port of Vancouver USA’s Terminal 1 Block A & C development is transforming the city’s waterfront into a dynamic mixed-use destination that honors its maritime heritage while creating new economic opportunities.

Completed in October 2024, the project features two mid-rise office towers rising nine and 10 stories above a shared landscaped podium. The development delivers 287,100 square feet of office space, 12,835 square feet of retail, and a 346,900-square-foot parking structure.

“The Launch,” a pedestrian axis that bisects the towers, recalls the site’s history as a wartime shipbuilding hub while providing sweeping views of the Columbia River and city skyline.

Lincoln Property faced significant challenges during development, including negotiating a long-term lease within just 90 days while simultaneously modifying project plans from a mixed office-residential design to an all-office development.

During the pandemic, supply chain disruptions were a major concern. The team prioritized domestic materials, partnering with a local Vancouver vendor to develop the distinctive metal exterior featuring blades and serrated edges that create dynamic interactions with sunlight.

The towers have achieved LEED Gold v4 certification, incorporating bird-safe glazing and native plantings that support pollinator habitats. The project reduces landscape irrigation by 75 percent and includes occupiable roof terraces, bike storage facilities, and EV charging stations.

ZoomInfo has established its West Coast hub at Terminal 1, leasing both towers and cementing the development’s role as a premier business destination in the Vancouver-Portland metro area.

The Port of Vancouver USA and City of Vancouver were critical to the project’s success. Their leadership is transforming the former 1920s warehouse site into an extension of downtown Vancouver with strategic freeway visibility and direct connectivity to Portland via the Interstate Bridge.

Public art features prominently, with murals by local artists Jeremy Nichols, Hayden Senter, and Ana Gabriela depicting imagery inspired by the Columbia River, Indigenous stories, and the city’s industrial heritage.

General contractor Robertson & Olson Construction completed the project with exemplary safety standards, earning multiple START Certifications from the Washington Department of Labor and Industries. DLR Group was executive architect on the project.

“The successful public-private partnership between the Port of Vancouver USA and Lincoln Property Company, spanning over five years, enabled the bold vision of constructing a Class A world headquarters for the tenant,” noted Patrick Gilligan, senior executive vice president with LPC, in the project submission form. “This collaboration also facilitated the execution of the largest lease signing in the Portland metro market in recent years.”

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By PETER FAIRLEY
InvestigateWest

Can slicing a 100-mile trench into the bed of the Columbia River be good for the environment? The answer is a big yes, says a team of energy developers that proposes submerging power cables in the riverbed.

The developers say the cables could deliver “clean” energy that will be crucial for getting the most densely developed areas of Cascadia off fossil fuels.

A proposal by energy developer Sun2o Partners and transmission developer PowerBridge would insert the cables into the Columbia at The Dalles in Oregon. This electrical on-ramp is near the wind farms and solar farms installed along the Columbia Gorge in eastern Oregon and Washington.

The cables also would intersect the monster transmission lines at the Bonneville Power Administration’s Big Eddy substation, drawing cheaper solar power from the Southwest, steadier wind power from Montana and Wyoming, and reliable backup power from British Columbia’s supersized hydropower reservoirs.

But even climate-conscious developers can’t make plans involving a natural resource like the Columbia River without causing uneasiness among those concerned with ecosystems and communities. Along the Columbia, those affected would include tribal nations and unique cultural interests.

Sun2o and PowerBridge propose to bring their cables ashore in Portland, helping to electrify industries, buildings and vehicles while reducing the use of coal- and gas-fired power plants. Hence the project’s name: Cascade Renewable Transmission.

“The only places you can site solar and wind at scale are, for the most part, east of the Cascades. But the demand, the need for the electricity, is in Portland and Seattle, on the west side,” says Corey Kupersmith, the New York–based renewable energy developer who cofounded Sun2o and dreamed up the cable scheme. And power lines that link east and west are filling up fast, he says.

Anticipating environmental concerns, the developers assert they will do little harm to the Columbia, employing high-pressure pumps that make underwater cable installation quick and not so dirty. Water jets would shoot down from a “hydroplow” towed along the riverbed, stirring open an 18-inch-wide trench in the sediment.

Environmental impacts, they argue, would likely be short-term and outweighed by environmental gains: reductions in pollution from natural gas, petroleum fuels and coal. That includes emissions of carbon dioxide and methane, two greenhouse gases that are supercharging Cascadia’s wildfires and heat waves and disrupting even the Columbia’s temperature and timing.

To Elaine Harvey, however, the Cascade Renewable Transmission pitch sounds like one more industrial enterprise in a stream of projects that have harmed her people. Such ventures decimated the Columbia River’s fisheries and fenced off and degraded the shrub-steppe grasslands that the Yakama and other tribes and bands ceded in an 1855 treaty with the United States.

A member of the Yakama’s Kah-milt-pa, or Rock Creek, Band, Harvey lives with the legacy of dams, aluminum production, wind farms, expanding solar plants and other development. Each has infringed on her people’s right to pursue traditional practices.

As Harvey and Kah-milt-pa Chief Bronsco Jim Jr. wrote earlier this year in the newsletter of Columbia Riverkeeper: “Ours is a living culture, and we are being cheated by progress. An unrelenting cultural extinction in the name of energy development.”

Power-system experts say the grid that sufficed in the fossil-fuel era must increase capacity if renewable electricity is to become the lifeblood of economies.

Wind blows and sunlight shines most reliably in places that are sparsely populated — areas with weak power lines. Stronger grids, in contrast, enable more power to travel between regions, so those areas can help each other out — precisely what Texas couldn’t do when a deep freeze brought the state to its knees in February and when heat strained its grid last month.

To explore the role of power transmission and the tradeoffs involved in grid expansion, InvestigateWest spoke with Kupersmith, Harvey and Lauren Goldberg, the legal and program director for Columbia Riverkeeper.

Corey Kupersmith: Renewable energy developer

A passion for diving exposed Corey Kupersmith to coral bleaching resulting from water pollution and global warming. An engineer by training and a banker by trade, Kupersmith cofounded New York City–based Sun2o five years ago as a business venture that honors his environmental values

Pursuing solar energy projects in sun-soaked eastern Oregon and Washington inspired him to propose the Cascade link project. Sun2o found plenty of landowners and rural communities eager to host solar panels. But it struggled to secure affordable space on power lines so it could send that energy to the utilities in greatest need of renewable energy.

Moving power west over the Cascades means getting access to the Bonneville Power Administration’s (BPA) regional network, the U.S. Northwest’s transmission backbone. That network is maxing out as a wave of renewable power projects plug in. “BPA has like 28 gigawatts of solar, wind and storage requests,” says Kupersmith. “That’s going to be pushing systems to their limits.”

And that was before Oregon passed one of North America’s most aggressive grid decarbonization plans.

The bill, which Gov. Kate Brown signed on July 27, requires Oregon’s investor-owned utilities to deliver 80 percent carbon-free power by 2030, compared to less than 50 percent today. It mandates 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040 — five years ahead of deadlines set by Washington state and California.

Bonneville itself is in a tough spot. The federal entity is being financially stretched by rising costs to maintain aging dams and improve impacted salmon fisheries and decreasing revenues as customers defect to cheaper suppliers.

Hitting a transmission barrier inspired Kupersmith to propose the Cascade cables. He knew putting them in the riverbed was an option, because PowerBridge had installed two transmission lines in the Hudson River to ease power bottlenecks in New York City. And he saw a submerged cable as an end-run around opposition to overhead lines that has scuppered previous grid expansion efforts in Cascadia and frequently ties up projects across the continent.

Kupersmith’s partner at PowerBridge, Chris Hocker, calls overhead lines “hideously problematic,” noting that they can take a decade or more to build. In contrast, he and Kupersmith anticipate their Columbia cables would begin pumping electricity in just five years — lightning speed for new transmission.

Of course, that depends on government and community approval. And the partners recently began conversations with the four tribes that have treaty rights in the region, including the Yakama Nation and the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Kupersmith says they had hoped to meet earlier but were delayed by the pandemic and a desire to conduct consultations in person.

Elaine Harvey: Kah-milt-pa activist

For Elaine Harvey, a power line in the Columbia would add to a pile of damaging energy developments over the decades. One of the most devastating was the 1957 completion of The Dalles Dam — one of 14 major dams on the Columbia’s main stem — and decimation of the world’s largest fishery.

The Dalles Dam energized the associated Big Eddy substation, where Kupersmith and his partners hope to plug into BPA’s regional grid, and which has its own painful associations for local tribes.

The Dalles Dam’s 200-foot-high barrier submerged the storied Celilo Falls, where daring dip netters once caught leaping salmon and steelhead. The dam also submerged a complex of villages nearby, which had been a gathering point for traders from tribes across the Northwest. Prior to the dam, it was North America’s oldest site of continuous human habitation.

Those historic insults and other losses remain fresh more than half a century later, as Indigenous communities grapple with a settler culture that often seems incapable of hearing their concerns.

Harvey sees that inability manifested in another proposed grid reinforcement project that she’s fighting, just upstream from The Dalles. The Goldendale Energy Storage Project would build a pair of 60-acre reservoirs, one alongside the river and one on a bluff above. By moving Columbia River water between the reservoirs, the project would store and discharge energy like a giant battery.

The project faces vocal opposition from the Yakama Nation, to whom the site is profoundly sacred. Yakama stories recall the bluffs as a haven during great floods in millennia past, and Harvey says her band still forages there for culturally important “first foods,” such as desert parsley.

They already have lost much access to foraging sites because wind farms have fenced off large areas. Only one landowner hosting a wind farm allows Harvey’s people to enter and gather traditional plants, she says.

Harvey asks whether the onslaught of development in the Columbia Gorge is necessary. She questions whom the projects are intended to benefit, noting with suspicion the express line running between BPA’s Big Eddy hub and Los Angeles.

The express line and others were built in the 1960s to help power California. In the future, excess solar power could flow north when the sun is up. But today, the lines’ primary use remains the shipment of hydropower from the Columbia River dams and British Columbia south to California.

Harvey wants to know where development will stop. “What is this going to lead to? Is this going to lead to wind (turbines) down the middle of the river? What’s down the line?”

Climate change also worries Harvey. A biologist by training, she knows warmer water represents a growing threat to the Columbia’s struggling fisheries.

Harvey thinks other solutions need to be considered. Gas-fired power plants can be equipped to capture the CO2 they produce. Smarter logging practices and coastal protections can boost the ability of inland forests and kelp forests to capture atmospheric CO2. Rooftop solar panels can generate power where it’s needed most.

Bottom line, says Harvey: “We already gave up enough.”

Lauren Goldberg: River defender and lawyer

For Lauren Goldberg, projects like the Cascade cables present an acute challenge. Goldberg, a 15-year veteran at Columbia Riverkeeper, sees fossil fuels and climate change as existential threats to the river and the communities that rely on it. This is a reason Riverkeeper has been a mainstay in the “Thin Green Line” movement that has blocked many efforts to push more coal, oil and liquefied natural gas down the rail lines transiting the Gorge.

And it’s why it advocates for clean energy production. “The Columbia River is already being impacted by the climate crisis, and the projections are dire,” says Goldberg.

Goldberg says a lot of green energy development has happened in the Columbia Basin, and she expects that will continue. But that does not mean every project that calls itself renewable and green gets a pass?

And even if submerged power cables are deemed important for energy transition, for Goldberg their carbon-cutting potential must outweigh their direct environmental impacts.

“Whether it’s renewable energy or fossil energy, we need to understand how a project is going to impact people that rely on the Columbia for salmon and for clean water,” says Goldberg.

Goldberg stresses that burying 100-mile-long power cables in the riverbed is a concept that Riverkeeper has yet to grapple with. Based on experience and preliminary research, Goldberg identifies several issues. One is the impact from stirring up sediment. She says that while the Columbia is “incredibly beautiful,” it’s by no means “pristine.”

Another potential impact mentioned by Goldberg could come from the electromagnetic fields generated by power cables. Research commissioned by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management looked at magnetic fields emanating from similar transmission cables laid across San Francisco Bay. Those cables helped reduce San Francisco’s dependence on gas-fired power plants.

The study found that the cables had some effects on migratory fish like salmon, which navigate partly by sensing Earth’s magnetic fields. For example, the cables increased the chance that salmon smolts would take a wrong turn that lengthened their journey to the ocean. But it detected no evidence that fish were harmed. Fish appeared to be just as successful at migrating through the bay after the cables were turned on.
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This report is part of Getting to Zero, InvestigateWest’s yearlong reporting initiative on reducing carbon in the Cascadia region. InvestigateWest’s work is supported in part by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

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KENNEWICK, Wash. (AP) — The J.R. Simplot Co. will pay a penalty of $65,250 after the Environmental Protection Administration accused it of pesticide safety issues just south of the Columbia River.

The penalty covers problems cited by EPA at both its Umatilla, Oregon, and Moreland, Idaho, facilities where large amounts of pesticide are stored and sold, the Tri-City Herald reported.

Simplot did not respond to a request for comment.

Simplot has a warehouse about 1,000 feet from the Umatilla River, just upstream from where it enters the Columbia River. The EPA said the warehouse had a 12-inch hole in the floor for piping that could allow liquid pesticide that spills to contaminate the ground under the warehouse.

The Idaho facility that was included in the settlement had pesticide spills that had solidified on the ground, creating a possible exposure for workers, according to the EPA.

Federal law requires structures used for containment to have discharge outlets and gravity drains sealed to prevent pesticide from leaking and contaminating the environment.

“Pesticides facilities have a responsibility to ensure their products are safely stored so that the people working there and living nearby are not exposed to potentially dangerous chemicals,” said Ed Kowlaski, director of EPA Region 10’s Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division.

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VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — The City Council in Vancouver, Washington, has adopted a resolution in support of replacing the Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River.

The resolution asks Gov. Jay Inslee and the Washington Legislature to provide funding to advance the long-debated project.

Many people live in Vancouver and work in Portland. Traffic jams frustrate commuters and commercial drivers near the bridge that connects the cities, and a new one — perhaps with the addition of light rail — is seen as at least a partial solution.

“The replacement of the bridge will be critical to the continued economic growth of the bi-state region,” Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle said in a statement Tuesday.

The resolution comes five years after a project known as the Columbia River Crossing went nowhere after nearly $190 million worth of planning. Oregon and Washington were supposed to each contribute money for the new span, but Washington lawmakers balked in 2013.

Oregon tried to keep the project alive without Washington’s help, but quickly dropped that idea.

McEnerny-Ogle urged neighboring cities and local ports to pass similar resolutions to show the governor and the Legislature that southwest Washington is united in its support for the bridge.

The Columbian newspaper reports the resolution passed unanimously Monday night with no discussion.

“Our community has asked for help, our businesses have asked for help,” the mayor said before making the motion to pass the resolution.

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