Campen Creek Reconnection Project on track to begin in August in Washougal

One large-scale water quality project is set to begin in Washougal while another is in the early design stages.

The Campen Creek Reconnection Project, coordinated by the Portland-based Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership with assistance from the city of Washougal, is on track to begin in August at Mable Kerr Park.

“We’re glad to see this project moving forward,” said Scott Collins, a Washougal city engineer. “It’s the result of a strong partnership with the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership and will provide meaningful environmental and community benefits for Washougal.”

The Estuary Partnership selected Aquatic Contracting, a Portland-based firm that focuses exclusively on habitat restoration construction, for the project, which will enhance the park’s salmon and other wildlife habitat by reconnecting a 2,000-foot portion of Campen Creek to its floodplain, remove hazardous trees and improve walking trails.

The impact of the project will extend “far beyond the 9-acre project footprint,” according to Chris Collins, restoration program lead at the Estuary Partnership.

“This creek is the most urbanized water body flowing into the Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge’s Gibbons Creek,” Collins said in a news release. “Restoring Campen Creek helps protect the $32 million habitat restoration project completed in 2022 at the refuge. This project is a great opportunity to improve the health of an entire watershed.”

Washougal City Manager David Scott has said the project will help to restore the historical Campen Creek floodplain to “improve water quality, support stormwater management, reduce peak flows, provide greater habitat complexity and stream conditions for wildlife, increase community recreational access, and provide environmental education engagement.”

The Estuary Partnership and the city, with assistance from the Washougal School District, are also in the early design stage of a project that will build green stormwater infrastructure in the Washougal High School parking lot and surrounding city streets to treat polluted stormwater runoff before it enters Campen Creek.

“(There are) sections of J Street, I street and 36th Street that really don’t have any sort of stormwater infrastructure whatsoever,” Sean Mulderig, the city’s stormwater program coordinator, explained last year. “Every single time it rains, (we) get big pools of water forming on J Street, and it goes into Canyon Creek, clearly untreated. And these are some pretty highly trafficked streets, so you get a lot of pollution that’s being generated on these impervious surfaces.”

Doug Flanagan: 360-735-4669; [email protected]