State Wants to Cut Off Your Access to Bateman Island in Favor of Fish

Technically Bateman Island isn't really a true island, it's joined to the shore of the Columbia River, just south of the merger between the Yakima and Columbia Rivers. There's a narrow causeway, or path, that allows people to access the area. But a plan to breach the causeway to help fish might change that.

As far back as 2013, several studies have been done in the area, and they claim salmon would have a better mortality rate. Breaching, or punching a large gap in the causeway would supposedly drop the area water temperatures by up to 5 degrees, making predatory fish less hungry. This temperature drop might be felt through the entire Yakima River delta, perhaps as far north as the I-182 bridge. It would allow water to flow around both sides of the island, cooling it and changing currents.

It would also add about 2 knots, or 2.3 miles per hour to the current that flows past the downstream marinas, including the large mooring area at Clover Island.  Local officials say this would have to be taken into consideration, as even mild current increases affect people's boats and how they are moored.

Tuesday's Richland City Council Meeting was the first time it's been discussed on the city level.  Although the land area is overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers, it's leased to Richland.

The overall effect of cooling the water and improving flows would help salmon and steelhead migration and increase their numbers.

However, it would also limit access to the popular recreation area. If the breach is done, there could be a pedestrian bridge built to the island, but no idea of the cost. If the breach occurs and no bridge is built, the island will only be accessible by boat.