ARIEL — PacifiCorp says it will look at options during the winter to improve its new canoe and kayak launch site underneath Yale Bridge on Merwin Reservoir.
The site was completed in March. It consists of parking on the Clark County side of state Highway 503, steep stairs to the edge of the North Fork of the Lewis River and a series of weirs to offer solid footing at various water elevations of Merwin Reservoir.
The launch-and-loading site was part of the Lewis River Settlement Agreement, a 2004 pact between 21 state, federal and local government agencies; Indian tribes, conservation groups and others. The settlement agreement paved the way for PacifiCorp receiving in 2008 a 50-year federal license to operate Merwin, Yale and Swift dams.
Jim Malinowski of Amboy represented Fish First, a local conservation group, in the settlement negotiations. He was the leading advocate for a formal kayak-canoe launch site at the location, which had an informal trail for years.
Malinowski voiced his complaints about the design of the site at the annual meeting of the Lewis River Recreation Coordination Committee.
The stairs are too steep and too narrow and fail to meet the guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act, he said.
“I expected to be able to use this with my wife,’’ Malinowski said “I would challenge anybody to tell me that’s a safe site to carry a full-size canoe or two-person kayak down those stairs.’’
Jessica Kimmick, recreation manager for PacifiCorp, said the design is compliant with Clark County’s permit and code requirements. There are exemptions allowed from ADA guidelines when terrain is excessively steep, she added.
An ADA-accessible site is available less than a mile away at Cresap Bay Park during the summer.
Canyon Creek flows into Merwin Reservoir slightly upstream from the site. Many whitewater rafters use Canyon Creek.
“The site was seen mainly as a takeout for whitewater people,’’ Kimmick said. “But we’ve seen a lot of flatwater kayakers using it to put in there.’’
Malinowski said the narrow upper end of Merwin Reservoir offers good canoe and kayak water because there is a 5 mile-per-hour speed limit on power boats.
“It the nicest section of the reservoir, why make it off limits to a large section of the population,’’ Malinowski said.
Todd Olson, PacifiCorp’s director of compliance, said the design was shared with kayakers, who supported the stairs.
Deb Schoenberg, a planner with the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, asked if a retrofit is possible with a slide adjacent to the stairs for moving a canoe or kayak.
Olson said PacifiCorp is open to exploring retrofit options. He said he envisioned a series of spaced rollers rather than a chute.
“We’re willing and open to looking what we can do,’’ Olson said. He suggested having an engineer look at the site and that the utility would try to come back to the recreation committee by about February 2016 with a range of ideas.
Mariah Reese, a Yale Valley resident, also liked the idea of rollers rather than a slide or chute, given the steepness of the terrain and the tendencies of young people to try feats of derring-do.
The stairs were damaged during the summer when vandals apparently rolled large parking lot boulders down them, Kimmick said. PacifiCorp has hired a contractor to replace the stairs with a thicker gauge of metal.
