Tourists looking for a scenic shortcut between Westport and Ocean Shores this summer are out of luck. The buildup of sand and silt in the Ocean Shores Marina has caused the passenger ferry linking the two cities to close. "It's hard on the equipment," said ferry owner Bill Walsh. "It's hard running on the mud and the sand." The buildup at the entrance and inside the marina has steadily worsened over the past three years, said Walsh.

The ferry, El Matador, lost income because it couldn't run on time. Ridership declined when people tired of the extended waits between trips and that forced him to raise the fare -from $10 per round trip to $12.50. Walsh has discontinued ferry service intermittently over the past few years, but this is the first time since it began in 1986 that he has been forced to shut down completely.

The only way to make the ferry operational would be to dredge the channel to the Ocean Shores Marina as well as the basin inside it. According to Walsh, the marina has never been dredged since it opened in 1962. Section 10 of the Federal Rivers and Harbors Act doesn't allow dredging without a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. So far, no local government entity in Grays Harbor County has applied for a permit to begin dredging. In addition to obtaining a permit from the Corps, the proponent would need approval from the Quinault Indian Nation's Enterprise Board, since the Nation owns the marina.

But seeking that approval is difficult, according to Guy Capoeman, vice chairman for the Quinault Indian Nation. Dredging means disturbing natural habitat and would require mitigation, which means providing land to compensate for the affected habitat. Authorizing dredging is only part of it. How to pay for it still has to be hashed out between the Corps of Engineers and the Quinault Indian Nation. The Corps is responsible for paying for federal navigation projects, which include dredging. That funding comes from Congress. The catch is that only the entrance channel to the marina qualifies as a federal navigation project. The Quinault Nation would be responsible for the basin, according to Lester Soule, chief of civil programs and projects of the Army Corps of Engineers.

In 2000, the Quinault Nation initiated a feasibility study that included dredging the entrance channel for a vehicular ferry and moving a section of breakwater in the marina. The study examined placing additional docks at the marina for the Quinault's commercial fishing fleet and building a resort on the shore. The Corps ran out of federal funding to back the study in 2005 and it was never completed. The study estimated the cost for the project at $9.5 million, only $1.5 million of which would be federally funded. The other $8 million would have to come from the Quinault Nation.

Soule said Congress quit funding the project because it didn't view the project as a good investment. Officials from all across Grays Harbor County are forming a task group to figure out how to get the ferry operating next year. - Source: The Daily World.

A 50-year-old Bremerton woman drowned at the beach at Ocean Shores while on a family outing. Carol Davidson was with her adult daughter and grandchildren on a trip to the beach when she walked out to play in the surf, according to the Grays Harbor Sheriffs Office. The daughter, an Aberdeen woman, was looking after her children when she heard her mother calling for help. The daughter couldn't find Davidson when she looked at the last place she had seen her, and she and other people on the beach searched for Davidson and called 911, said Undersheriff Rick Scott. After a short time they saw her floating in the water, unconscious.