Author: COMMITTEE ON CHANNEL STABILIZATION (ARMY)

Publisher:

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 20

ISBN-13:

On 18 May 1980, Mt. St. Helens, located in southwest Washington erupted with devastating force causing a huge sand flow down the Toutle River to the Cowlitz River that eventually emptied into and formed a large bar or delta in the columbia river near its junction with the Cowlitz, reducing the authorized navigation channel depth of 40 ft to no more than 15 ft. Sand flow has been adopted as a descriptive term for volcanic eruptive and untrained materials that traversed and deposited in the Toutle River Basin and the Cowlitz and Columbia Rivers. Subsequently, the US Army Engineer District, Portland, has been working to restore Columbia River navigation and preeruption levels of flood protection along the Cowlitz River. By December 1980, 70 percent of the channel capacity of the Cowlitz had been restored. However, december represents the beginning of the normal flood season; therefore the district was concerned with: (a) how much sediment can be expected from the Toutle River during the upcoming flood season; (b) where in the Cowlitz and Columbia Rivers will deposition take place; and (c) what effect will deposition have on flood levels? To address these questions, the District requested and obtained technical assistance from the US Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station to aid District personnel in adapting suitable math models to the lower Cowlitz and lower Toutle Rivers and to develop a plan of study (primarily data collection and analysis) in regard to restoration of the Columbia-Cowlitz-Toutle Rivers.