TO BUSINESS EDITOR:

                Columbia River Bank Hires Chief Operating Officer

    THE DALLES, Ore., Oct. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Roger Christensen,
President and Chief Executive Officer for Columbia Bancorp (Nasdaq: CBBO), the
financial holding company for Columbia River Bank, announced today that Brian L.
Devereux has been hired as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
for the bank. "We are excited about the addition of Brian to our executive team.
His depth and breadth of knowledge will improve our ability to deliver quality
products and services to our customers, shareholders and employees," stated
Christensen.

    His duties will include enhancement of the retail support network, continued
improvement of the loan document processing systems, and evolvement of new
products and services. He will work out of the bank's west-side administration
center located in Vancouver, Washington.

    Devereux has spent 17 years in the financial service industry, most recently
serving as Vice President of Corporate Loan Services for West Coast Bank. He
graduated from the University of Oregon majoring in finance/marketing, and
earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of
Portland.

    ABOUT COLUMBIA BANCORP

    Columbia Bancorp (http://www.columbiabancorp.com) is the financial holding
company for Columbia River Bank, which is marking its 30th anniversary in
business this year. CRB operates 22 branches located in The Dalles (2), Hood
River, Bend (3), Madras, Redmond (2), Pendleton, Hermiston, McMinnville, Lake
Oswego, Canby, and Newberg, Oregon, and in Goldendale, White Salmon, Sunnyside,
Vancouver, Yakima, Pasco and Richland, Washington. In addition, Columbia River
Bank has three limited service branches located in retirement homes, one in
Bend, Oregon and two in McMinnville, Oregon. To supplement its community banking
services, Columbia River Bank also provides mortgage-lending services through
Columbia River Bank Mortgage Team and brokerage services through CRB Financial
Services Team.

    FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

    This press release contains various forward-looking statements about plans
and anticipated results of operations and financial condition relating to
Columbia Bancorp. These statements include statements about Management's present
plans and intentions about our strategy, growth, and deployment of resources,
and about Management's expectations for future financial performance. Readers
can sometimes identify forward-looking statements by the use of prospective
language and context, including words like "may", "will", "should", "expect",
"anticipate", "estimate", "continue", "plans", "intends", or other similar
terminology. Because forward-looking statements are, in part, an attempt to
project future events and explain Management's current plans, they are subject
to various risks and uncertainties that could cause our actions and our
financial and operational results to differ materially from those set forth in
such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our
ability to estimate accurately the potential for losses inherent in our loan
portfolio, economic and other factors that affect the collectibility of our
loans, the impact of competition and fluctuations in market interest rates on
Columbia's revenues and margins, and our ability to open and generate growth
from new branches and to expand in new markets as we expect. Some of the other,
risks and uncertainties that we have in the past, or that we may from time to
time in the future, detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission ("SEC"). Information presented in this report is accurate as of the
date the report was filed with the SEC, and we cannot undertake to update our
forward-looking statements or the factors that may cause us to deviate from
them, except as required by law.



SOURCE  Columbia Bancorp
    -0-                             10/03/2007
    /CONTACT: Roger L. Christensen, President and CEO, +1-541-298-6633,
rchristensen@columbiabancorp.com, or Greg B. Spear, Vice Chair, CFO,
+1-541-298-6612, gspear@columbiabancorp.com, both of Columbia Bancorp/
    /First Call Analyst: /
    /FCMN Contact: /
    /Web site:  http://www.columbiabancorp.com /
    (CBBO)