For many years the Columbia River has been an under-utilized asset.
In 1953 the US Army Corps of Engineers built McNary Dam downstream of the Tri-Cities area. And they constructed a series of shoreline levees to control the significant amount of water that would then collect behind the dam and push back up river as far as to Richland.
In those early years, the community welcomed flood control efforts. The levees were built very high….engineered for a 1,000 year flood. However, those levees pretty much walled our community off from the river. As a result, the cities turned their backs to the river and commercial and residential development moved away from the Columbia.