Report of the Secretary of the Army
on Civil Works Activities
for Fiscal Year 1991
Department of the Army Corps of Engineers
Extract Report of Walla Walla District

Surveys

The principal ongoing survey is the Upper Snake River and Tributaries. The area covered by the study extends from the headwaters of the Snake River in Wyoming down to and including the Weiser River in Idaho. An interim study was continued on the Snake River in the vicinity of Big Lost River, Idaho.

The Water Resources Development Act of 1986 authorized the Corps to operate and maintain a system of non-Federal levees along the Snake River in the vicinity of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. A reconnaissance study of the potential for improving the system with levee raises, extensions, or relocations was completed in FY 90.

A reconnaissance study of a proposal to lower the Tri-Cities Levees at Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland, Washington, continued. The levees were built by the Corps as part of the McNary Lock and Dam in the 1950's. Consequent upstream storage development may provide an opportunity to reduce levee heights for the purpose of land enhancement and recreation.

A reconnaissance study of the Walla Walla River Basin, Washington and Oregon, was initiated. The study will focus primarily on flood damage and prevention. However, local interests have requested consideration be given to other water resource needs, including M&I water supply, irrigation, water-based recreation, and restoration of spring chinook salmon and steelhead trout runs.

Jackson Hole River and Wetland Restoration reconnaissance study was initiated to restore fish and wildlife habitat in the 500-year floodplain of the leveed reach of the Snake and Gros Ventre Rivers at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The study will evaluate losses resulting from levee construction over the past 30 years, and determine restoration measures to compensate for these losses.

We participated in the Columbia River and Tributary Study, a survey directed by North Pacific Division.

Total cost of surveys was $680,343 for FY 91, including: flood control studies ($556,160); special studies including Soil Conservation Service, Bureau of Reclamation, River Basin and Regional Planning Commissions, and Cooperation with States ($31,706); Special Investigations, Inter Agency Water Resource Development and FERC Licensing Activities, and North American Waterfowl Management Plan ($92,477).