The Washington Department of Ecology is updating the Lower Columbia River Geographic Response Plan (GRP). An important part of the update process is hearing from the people who live, work, and play in the planning area. To facilitate this, a public comment period began on Tuesday 7/16/2024 and ended on Friday 8/16/2024. No comments were submitted during this timeframe. The anticipated publication date for the final version of this plan will be Tuesday, October 1, 2024.

​Description of the Area

LCR-GRP starts at river mile one and ends at the base of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Bonneville Lock and Dam located at river mile 145.4. The four-GRP Middle Columbia River region begins on the upriver side of the Bonneville Dam. Also included within the planning area is the lower Willamette River, which is a 26-mile reach from the Willamette Falls at West Linn/Oregon City, Oregon to the confluence with the Columbia at Kelley Point Park in Portland.

What are Geographic Response Plans?
GRPs are used to guide early response actions in the event of an oil spill. Ecology develops and updates GRPs in collaboration with state, local and federal agencies and tribes. Each GRP is written for a specific area (for example a river, a lake, or section of Puget Sound), and includes tactical response strategies tailored to a particular shore or waterway at risk of injury from oil.

GRPs have two main objectives:

  • Identify sensitive natural, cultural or significant economic resources at risk of injury from oil spills.
  • Describe and prioritize response strategies in an effort to reduce injury to sensitive natural, cultural, and certain economic resources at risk from oil spills.

The Washington Legislature requires additional planning relating to oils that may not remain floating on the surface, termed non-floating oils (NFOs), in order to maintain the state’s preparedness. This draft GRP contains updates relating to NFOs in the Non-Floating Oil Response Options and Resources at Risk sections of the GRP.

More Information

Questions

Max Gordon

Oil Spill Preparedness Planner

Max.gordon@ecy.wa.gov

360-972-4890