This video from youtube shows work on the Columbia River Channel Improvement Project (CRCIP). Crews, working under contract for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, are using explosives to remove basalt rock from the bottom of the Columbia River near St. Helens, Ore. The Corps is deepening the 103-mile-long Columbia River Federal Navigation Channel to 43-feet between the mouth of the Columbia River and Portland/Vancouver. The fractured basalt is being transported via barge to the Ross Island Lagoon in southeast Portland. The work is taking place between November 2009 and February 2010, a time of year when there are few salmon and steelhead in the river, to avoid harming listed species.