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Smith River Alliance representatives received buy-in from Crescent City Harbor commissioners on Tuesday for a project to upgrade stream crossings within the Elk Creek watershed they say will prevent sediment from inundating the port during a tsunami or storm.

Harbor Commissioners unanimously agreed to sign a letter of support for the nonprofit’s Elk Valley Road Fish Passage and Sediment Reduction Design Project.

The Smith River Alliance is currently working with Del Norte County to replace three culverts on Elk Valley Road with bridges, according to the Harbor District’s support letter. If they’re not replaced, about 700 cubic yards of sediment could wash into the harbor in the event of a tsunami or a storm, Smith River Alliance Co-Director Grant Werschkull said.

The letter is an important tool for the county and Smith River Alliance to use to obtain funding for the projects through the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to Werschkull.

They’re also part of a larger study the Smith River Alliance completed in 2019 with help from Crescent City, Del Norte County, the Elk Valley Rancheria and other agencies. That study identified 30 projects that could enhance coastal resilience, along with recreation uses within the 9 square-mile watershed.

Most projects are located within a 420-acre area on the east side of Crescent City that includes a pond from an old logging mill, oxbow ponds and coastal wetlands that provide buffer against flooding and storm surges for the community, according to Smith River Alliance Program Coordinator Monica Scholey.

“One of the things we looked at in the study is infrastructure — the (road) crossings — partly to help reduce flooding, but also in the headwaters there’s really important salmon habitat,” she said. “Also some of those failed crossings, once they fail all of that sediment washes downstream. The three crossings we’re partnering with Del Norte County to upgrade, if they were to wash out, it would interrupt a major transportation route in and out of Crescent City.”

Those stream crossings are all on Elk Valley Road near Beckett and Cassel Lanes, Steeps Lane and near Jefferson Street, Scholey told the Wild Rivers Outpost.

The Smith River Alliance is currently in the design and environmental review phases for those three culvert replacement projects, according to Scholey.

The designs are expected to be completed next year at which point the Smith River Alliance will seek funding through the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fisheries Restoration Grant program and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Coastal Resilience programs to implement the project, she told the Outpost.

Currently, the culverts act as partial barriers for salmon swimming to spawning grounds upstream, Scholey said.

“It’s a stressful process for fish to go up,” she said. “When flows are higher, the salmon have a harder time getting upstream. We’re anticipating having those done in 2023.”

The Smith River Alliance is also looking at replacing three more culverts on private roads in the Elk Valley Road area, Scholey said.

The Elk Creek Restoration Feasibility Study also focused on an old mill pond at the old McNamara & Peepe Lumber Mill behind Safeway as well as oxbow ponds that can be a source of recreation at the old Hobbs, Wall & Co. mill site.

According to Scholey, the mill pond contains hydrocarbons, PCBs, dioxins and other contaminants from the old lumber mills. A remedial action plan was put together in 2006 with a recommendation to cap — pave over and fence — the contamination site, she said.

The Smith River Alliance’s feasibility study calls for updating that remedial action plan to assess options for removing that contamination, Scholey said.

“It’s a big project and it’ll probably take an effort, a combined effort of a lot of different agencies as well as the local government, to address,” she said. “But it’s worthwhile to actually do something about that contamination since those sediments could be spread all over Crescent City in a tsunami event.”

On Tuesday, though they applauded the Smith River Alliance’s habitat restoration efforts, Harbor Commissioners expressed concern about homeless encampments in the area and the potential for contamination.

“A lot of drugs and stuff like that go into the land and then that gets into the water,” said Harbor District Board President Rick Shepherd.

Pointing out the Smith River Alliance-sponsored community cleanups have removed tons of debris from the wooded area surrounding Crescent City, Werschkull said California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials often go with them to tell them what areas to target.

“All you can do is keep up with it,” he said. “We agree it’s a larger issue that needs to be addressed, but it’s not lost on us.”

Werschkull added that Elk Valley Rancheria’s new casino and renewed interest in birdwatching and bicycling in the area may make that area less attractive for homeless encampments.

Documents:

• Elk Creek Restoration Feasibility Study

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