 Family wins eminent domain battle
After nine years, Army Corps, ports reverse course on using farmland to replace lost habitat Cookson Beecher Capital Press Friday, August 08, 2008 A southwest Washington farm family embroiled in a battle to save some of its prime land from eminent domain as part of the Columbia River deepening project is rejoicing over the news that it will be able to keep the land after all. On July 30, the Colf family learned that the ports involved in the deepening project - including Vancouver, Kalama and Longview - decided instead to use port-owned land to replace habitat lost as a result of the project. "We're so very relieved," family matriarch Margaret Colf, 91, told Capital Press in an Aug. 4 interview. "That land is so valuable as farmland. It would be a crime to take good farmland like that out of production." For nine years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tried to acquire farmland in the Woodland Bottoms and Martin Island from the Colfs - even though the Colfs made it clear that they wanted to farm the land, not sell it. The situation escalated to the point that earlier this year the Corps threatened to have the ports start condemnation proceedings. The last-minute reprieve came when the ports suddenly decided they could convert some of Cottonwood Island between Longview and Kelso into wildlife habitat. The ports are using another part of the same island to dispose of material dredged up from the deepening project. The project, which is expected to be completed next year, will deepen the navigable channel from a minimum of 40 to 43 feet, starting at the mouth of the Columbia River and going upriver 106 miles to Vancouver, Wash., and Portland. This will benefit agriculture by allowing for the passage of newer, larger ships, thus reducing the cost of shipping wheat and other agricultural products to the Pacific Rim, said Jason Kelly, spokesman for the Washington State Department of Agriculture. In an Aug. 5 interview with Capital Press, Roy Heikkala, a spokesman for the Colf family, said the family had mixed reactions to the news that the Corps had decided to back off from acquiring some of its farmland. "The family is glad they're going away," he said, referring to the Corps. "But they can't help but wonder why it took nine years when all along there was another piece of property that could be used." Through this experience with the Corps and the ports, Margaret Colf said she has come to see that people need to be made aware of how important it is to protect farmland. "God's not going to make any more of it," she said. For Colf, the battle was particularly upsetting because it brought back unhappy memories of other farmland the family lost decades ago. Colf grew up on her great grandfather's farm along the Lewis River before Northwestern Electric Co. purchased part of the family's farmland and built Merwin Dam in 1930. Colf and her family watched their farm fill with water. "I was really upset when I lost my home, so these past nine years of fighting to save our land has been really sad," she said. "They're going to have to stop grabbing farmland." State legislators would agree on that point. Last spring, a bill that would have prohibited using eminent domain to take farmland for wetland mitigation projects passed overwhelmingly in both the House and the Senate. But when the Corps told Gov. Chris Gregoire that the bill would stop the Columbia River dredging project, she vetoed it. But she also told the Corps to work with the Colf family. "That started them moving," Heikkala said, pointing out that before then, the Corps had maintained it couldn't make any changes to its plans. This spring, each of the port commissions heard the concerns of the family and asked the Corps to exhaust all options to reach a settlement or find an alternative. Gregoire also weighed in, asking for a solution that met two of her priorities - economic prosperity and preservation of working farms. "This resolution is the result of a lot of hard work from a number of different parties," Gregoire said. "I am pleased that the Corps and the ports found a solution that allows the proper mitigation for the Columbia deepening project while minimizing the impacts on area farms." Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, a staunch farmland-preservation advocate, said it's good to finally see federal and state agencies recognize that the state is serious about preserving farmland. "It's a valuable resource that can't be replaced," she said. Heikkala, meanwhile, said the lesson to be learned through all of this is that if the government goes after your land, if you don't have the will and the money to fight it, the government will "steam roller over you." He said the family spent about $100,000 to defend its property in the four months before the Corps decided to back away and about $200,000 during its battle with the Corps. Staff writer Cookson Beecher is based in Sedro-Woolley, Wash. E-mail: cbeecher@capitalpress.com. |
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