People who own private docks on the Columbia River from Richland to Kennewick and Pasco could see new rules that will limit or even eliminate their privileges to have backyard boating access.
The Army Corps of Engineers is proposing changes in the permit process for private docks that could take effect as early as this summer. A public open house about the changes is planned beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Byron Gjerde Center at Columbia Basin College in Pasco.
Corps staff will discuss the proposed changes, answer questions and accept public comments during the meeting.
Public comments also may be submitted on the Corps' draft plan through Feb. 17 at the Walla Walla district office, 201 N. Third St., Walla Walla.
Cindy Boen, a Corps landscape architect who is the project manager for the McNary Shoreline Management Plan, said Wednesday's meeting is a follow-up to a public open house on the same subject held in Kennewick last April.
Boen said the update is being done because the current shoreline management plan does not consider cultural resource issues that are important to Native American tribes and makes no provision for Endangered Species Act fish that include seven species of salmon and the bull trout.
Boen said owners of the 82 docks that would be covered by the proposed rules will be able to keep their docks as long as they are maintained in safe condition and get new permits every five years as is now required.
But changes in ownership of the docks could require that new standards be met. Those include having a metal grate surface instead of solid decking and no treated or painted lumber. Docks also must be designed and built so fish-eating predators such as birds cannot hide or perch on the dock.
Boen said the proposed rules have been developed by consulting with various experts, including the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. She said the rules are specific to the Columbia River in the Tri-Cities.
She said 24 existing docks are considered grandfathered because they were established before Nov. 17, 1986, and will not be subject the rules.
Boen said some dock owners mistakenly believe they can include the right of dock ownership when they sell their property, but she said that has never been a vested right of property owners.
Any property transfer requires the new owner to apply for a dock permit as well as a real estate license to build or rebuild the dock if it fails to meet the rules, she said.
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