From the Statesman Journal
A strategy that will improve management of 13 dams and tanks in the Willamette River Basin is the topic of 4 conferences next week in Eugene, Springfield, Sugary Food House and Stayton.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is hosting the conferences after it launched a 2,200 page blueprint for handling how it shops and releases over 500 trillion gallons of water utilized for drinking, watering and leisure in the Willamette Valley.
A public remark duration for individuals to weigh in on the 7 options the Corps are thinking about is underway till Feb. 23.
” What we’re doing now will be very important for how we handle the system for the next thirty years,” Nicklas Knudson, acting job supervisor for the EIS modifications with the Corps, informed the Statesman Journal in December. “This is the very best opportunity to straight impact how we handle this system in the future. At this moment, we can still make modifications.”
While the conferences benefit info and to ask concerns of the Corps, individuals still require to send remarks through e-mail (willamette.eis@usace.army.mil) or mail to PO Box 2946, Portland, OR., 97208-2946.
In-person organized conferences in the Willamette Valley Today
Eugene
12:30 -2:30 p.m., Tuesday
Lane Neighborhood College
4000 E. 30th Ave., Structure 19, Space 102, Eugene
Sugary Food House
6-8 p.m., Wednesday
Sugary Food House Senior Citizen Center
880 18th Ave., Sugary Food House
Stayton
Midday to 2 p.m., Thursday
Stayton Recreation Center
400 W. Virginia St., Stayton
What’s going on?
The file in concern is called a draft Programmatic Environmental Effect Declaration. It took more than 3 years to finish and was last upgraded in 1980 and comes following years of suits and court orders requiring the Corps retrofit dam operations to assist native salmon and steelhead prevent termination.
The strategy sets out seven different “alternatives” for how the firm might handle the 13 dams and tanks. Individuals can discuss which options they like most and why.
The Willamette Basin’s dams and tanks, which extend from Home Grove to Detroit and consist of significant rivers like the Santiam and McKenzie, were initially developed to lower flooding. That primary function will not alter.
However within its secondary operations, and in the file, the Corps proposes some significant actions. Its “favored option”– the alternative they’re favoring– consists of basically altering Cougar Tank and constructing multimillion-dollar structures to assist fish travel through dams and manage river temperature levels. It consists of downsizing hydropower, ultimately downsizing hatchery fish programs and tweaking just how much water is kept in the 13 tanks.
For more information, go to bit.ly/3GMetLB
The links above will take you to the Corps files. While the whole file is enormous the very first part of it offers and abbreviated examination/explanation of the favored options.
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