From the News-Review by Kirk Blaine
After a devastating return of summer season steelhead in 2015 and several years of below-average spring Chinook, Winchester Dam stays more shabby than ever previously. How does this 130-year-old dam preserved for personal leisure impact the salmon and steelhead runs all of us take pleasure in?
Regretfully, Winchester Dam is most likely the most substantial fish killer in the Umpqua Basin, damaging and diminishing every native-run trying to move up or downstream from the 160 miles of top quality environment extending above this structure. A wide range of big incorrect destination holes stays in and under the dam. An open hole in between the face of the dam and the fish ladder is still covered by what appear like a piece of conveyor belt, vouching for its negligent maintenance.
These incorrect destination streams suggest that fish will continue to delve into the side of the dam and fulfill threats, injury and hold-up. Worn down concrete and exposed rebar show up in the dam’s structures, abutments and fish ladder. The fish ladder stays complicated to browse for fish and does not fulfill state or federal fish passage guidelines. On the other hand, a noticeable downstream curve in the dam crest raises concerns about whether the dam is a hazard not simply to fish, however to public security.
Nearly 2 years back, I composed a viewpoint piece sharing concerns with Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua River. Over the exact same time, state authorities have actually continued to prompt Winchester Dam’s owners to fix the dam and fish ladder. However to this day, little has actually been done on the dam itself to repair glaring issues or help our salmon and steelhead in passing the structure. This is a clear insult to those associated with the effort all over Douglas County concentrated on restoring our fisheries populations, from environment tasks such as riparian planting to the modernization of fish passage at Soda Springs Dam.
Winchester Dam is unlawfully eliminating and damaging our salmon and steelhead. State and federal firms have a responsibility to promote the guideline of law to secure residents and our natural deposits. Guidelines and guidelines for Winchester Dam should be imposed to secure our rivers and fish.
We even have a current effective example of a company holding personal dam owners liable for a fish-killing dam in southern Oregon: the previous Savage Rapids Dam on the Rogue River. In the years prior to the effective elimination of Savage Rapids Dam, which was eliminated to benefit salmon runs, the National Marine Fisheries Service submitted a suit versus its owners for illegal damage to federally safeguarded salmon.
The National Marine Fisheries Service need to take the exact same action now to secure federally safeguarded salmon at Winchester Dam.
I ask our state’s senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, to assist direct federal firms to assist the North Umpqua River and its fish. The senators should continue to promote their tradition on the North Umpqua by beginning with bringing the guideline of law to this shabby dam.
2 years back, I saw 2 alternatives for Winchester Dam:
- Need the dam owners to lastly conquer their indifference to duty and repair work and restore the dam appropriately to bring it and its ladder approximately state and federal requirements; or
- Eliminate the dam with public funds as preservation groups used to the dam owners to do in composing back in 2020.
Today, it has actually sadly ended up being clear that the Winchester Dam owners can not be depended fix and preserve Winchester Dam to secure the North Umpqua. The dam represents a considerable monetary and legal duty the owners have actually overlooked to appropriately promote, together with their duty for the dam’s continuous damage to salmon and steelhead in North Umpqua River. It is clear that getting rid of Winchester Dam will benefit everybody in Douglas County and our fish.
