PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — The Chambers Bay Estuary was once a vibrant ecosystem where water flowed freely, teeming with salmon.
However, consistent industrialization since the late 1800’s has altered the natural tidal systems, and the roaring waterways soon grew quiet.
Puyallup Tribal Councilmember James Rideout still remembers fishing in Chambers Creek as a boy, and passed the tradition of being a steward to the waterways down to his son.
“He would sit in the car seat and watch me fish,” he said. “It’s really near and dear to my heart to have that generation, my son, be a part of this process.”
Rideout says he’s seen the salmon population dwindle over time because salmon can’t access the waterways.
“When there’s one fish that jumps, there’s usually 20-30 fish in the radius, if there’s two or more, there’s 50-100, and when there’s three or more, there’s thousands of salmon,” Rideout explains. “I’d see fish jumping along the shore for as far as the eye could see. But that’s not the case today.”
Now Pierce County has a chance to repair that damage.
Last week, the Pierce County Council heard a plan to replace the Chambers Creek Bridge.
The bridge is part of a key roadway connecting Steilacoom and University Place, but it was built in 1946 and has now started to show its age.
“The bridge replacement is the first domino to fall in the entire Estuary restoration piece,” said Sean Goldsmith, who serves as Pierce County’s Salmon Recovery Senior Planner.
Replacing the bridge would cost up to $62 million, and County officials say the new bridge would also make the area more friendly for pedestrians.
“Part of what our designs would look at was having additional parking that might be next to the trailhead, allowing for pedestrian crossways across the bridge,” he said.
The project is currently in the preliminary stages, and County officials say construction likely won't kick off for another 6-8 years.
The replacement is part of a larger effort to restore the Chambers Bay Estuary and its natural waterways. Once the bridge is replaced, County officials plan to remove the Chambers Creek Dam downstream.
Ultimately, the hope is to restore the Estuary to its natural beauty.
"A lot of the projects we work on is maintaining a hatchery system, which is not a natural system,” Rideout says. “The more we can restore a natural system in its natural state, the better off we all will be."