Army Corps to raise Mount St. Helens sediment dam

By: Henry Brannan

Outlets: The Columbian

Published: January 30, 2026

Words: 887

Last Updated: 1 month, 2 weeks ago

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is set to start raising a dam used to catch millions of tons of Mount St. Helens sediment that flows each year from the mountain into the Toutle, Cowlitz and Columbia rivers.

The nearly 37-year-old sediment-retention structure was last raised in 2013. But it has become less and less effective as it fills, shifting from catching about 80 percent of passing sediment to allowing 80 percent to pass, a …

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