Nature,
Navigation and Floods:
The
Columbia Slough: "A Great Big Bathtub"
Rising water
in the June freshet flooded the slough and lakes. Pools
became spawning beds for crappies, perch, bass, sun
fish, chubs, catfish, mudcats, carp, suckers, crawfish
and rare flying fish. Sandy Scales said the Columbia
was the Sandy River, one and the same time at an early
time. Brother Holmes, O.S.M., St. Johns Resident
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This
pump station on Elrod Drive was installed on a
secondary slough by the Port of Portland, and
operated as part of the emergency backup system
until decommissioned in 2000. Photo by Donna
Sinclair 2000
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The
Columbia Slough plays a critical role in the Portland
Metropolitan area's flood control system. Once
a branch of the Columbia River, the slough connected
to the Columbia on the east, the Willamette on
the west. The water body flooded annually and
created an inland wetland storing water during
heavy rainfall and releasing it slowly. During
the twentieth century as communities developed
along the Columbia, people began calling for federal
assistance in flood control. Since the 1910s,
the slough has become a stormwater conveyance
system. Surrounded by levees, it has been diked,
filled and transformed from a natural flood control
plain to a completely managed system.
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Webster's
Collegiate Dictionary and Roget's Thesaurus define a
slough as:
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A place
of deep mud or mire; a swamp 