Surveying set to begin this week is part of Haines Borough’s environmental mitigation work for Port Chilkoot Dock.
The work – compensation for the environmental impact of filling a beach at the dock – includes creation of intertidal pools near Picture Point and culvert replacement on Comstock Road. Work must be completed within a year.
“Takshanuk (Watershed Council) has been working on their culvert plan and engineering, and they’ve asked us to purchase the culvert for them… We are going to do surveying and the work towards the tidal pools this week,” said borough facilities director Brad Maynard.
He said the pools are a place for animals to “hover until the tide comes back in.”
“We’re going to take a piece of ground and create intertidal pools and then we’re going to lock it up so it can’t be developed,” Maynard said. “We’ll end up taking it and having it set aside for perpetuity. That will be over towards Picture Point, on borough property.”
He described the pool work: “What you do is take rocks and dig a real shallow pool and put some rocks around it to keep sand from filtrating back into it, and just create habitat.”
The cost of replacing the Comstock culvert is nearly $70,000.
“There are five crossings on Comstock Road, and how many we address is under consideration, because of the value of upstream habitat and the likelihood of providing more habitat for fish,” said Emily Cowles, executive director of Takshanuk Watershed Council.
She said the Haines Borough would contribute $30,000 to replacing the Comstock culvert she described as too steep and too small. She said the culvert would be buried as soon as possible in the spring.
Maynard gave an update on the dock project. “They have most of the fill in. They’ve started the restroom building. They want to get it up and actually build it through the winter. Next spring, before the cruise ship season starts, they’re supposed to be complete with paving and all that work.”