Chehalis River

Description of the Planning Area

The Chehalis Basin is the second-largest river basin in Washington, draining 2,700 square miles. The planning area begins on the Chehalis River, upstream of Cosmopolis at river mile (RM) 4. It follows the river southeast to the city of Chehalis (RM 70), and then west to Pe Ell (RM 110). The plan also covers the lower miles of the Chehalis tributaries, including the South Fork Chehalis River, Newaukum River, Skookumchuck River, Black River, Satsop River, and Wynoochee River, and many other creeks and streams.

You can view draft Chehalis River GRP sections here: https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/ezshare/sppr/preparedness/CHER_GRP/CHER_PublicCommentPeriodCoverPage.pdf.

What are Geographic Response Plans?

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. Each GRP 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.

More information

• Learn more about GRPs.
• See GRPs for the Northwest Area (Washington, Oregon, and Idaho).