The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Be it exporting the millions of tons of wheat harvested by local farmers, transporting essential cargo, or cultivating Eastern Washington's growing tourism industry, our community relies on its waterways in order to thrive. We need a healthy "river highway" in order to foster a healthy economy - yet our federal navigation channel on the Lower Snake River has not been maintained since 2005.

While I am pleased the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is preparing much-awaited maintenance dredging on the Lower Snake River in the coming months, this marks a good opportunity to reflect on the value our...