siena_Cormorants-1056
The Astoria-Megler Bridge is in the middle of a roughly $70 million refurbishment project aimed at shoring up the integrity of the main thoroughfare connecting Washington and Oregon at the mouth of the Columbia River. The bridge spans four miles across the river and serves as a pass-through for much of the international cargo coming to the Pacific Northwest, as well as daily commuters and travelers traveling between the two states. Thousands of cormorants nesting on the bridge cover it in copious amounts of corrosive guano, threatening the integrity of the bridge. It's estimated that cormorants cause over a million dollars in damage per year. Here, engineering teams undertake the arduous task of rinsing the struts. The cleaning takes place during nesting season, and is done in conjunction with a hazing program aimed at discouraging cormorants from establishing nests on a portion of the bridge.