2023 Repair Work at Dam Very First Because Messed Up 2018 Effort That Triggered Fish Eliminate and Polluted Drinking Supply Of Water for 37,000 Individuals
Winchester, OR ¬– On Monday August 7th, the fish ladder at Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua River near Roseburg will close up until August 28th to enable tank drawdown and structural repair work at the 450-foot large, 17-foot high, 130-year-old wood, steel, and concrete structure. This drawdown approach, picked as the least expensive dam repair work approach by dam owner Winchester Water Control District over other reputable and more fish-friendly dam repair work alternatives, will launch kept sediment downstream onto state-designated Important Salmonid Habitat/federally-designated vital Coho salmon environment while developing an migratory dead-end for endangered summer season steelhead, spring Chinook salmon, and other native types trying to move upstream to the 160 miles of outstanding cold water environment above the dam. The release of kept water downstream on August 7th will likely bring in native migratory fish towards the dam simply after the ladder closes, restricting them for weeks to the warm water listed below the dam, without any cold water refugia close by. Intensifying this damage, the tank refill taking place around August 28th will briefly decrease river streams downstream of the dam throughout the driest and most popular duration of the year and most likely injure North Umpqua instream water rights planned to safeguard salmon and steelhead. Rubbing salt in the wound, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) authorities decreased to address river supporters’ official demand to utilize their authority to need a less damaging repair work option keeping upstream fish migration ¬– just weeks prior to collapsing summer season steelhead numbers stimulated ODFW to shut all fishing in the North Umpqua from August through November.
Winchester Dam is a run-down previous hydropower center now owned and kept exclusively to offer a personal water ski lake for around 110 landowners surrounding the tank swimming pool. River supporters from union of fishing, preservation, and whitewater groups have actually been working for years to raise alarm bells with federal government authorities over the Winchester Water Control District’s persistent non-compliance with state and federal repair work allowing, engineering, water quality, and dam security requirements along with their neglect for defenses for fish and wildlife in spite of the vital environment significance of the North Umpqua for salmon and steelhead.
Issues and abnormalities that river promotes raised throughout the allowing procedure in the lead approximately the 2023 repair work consist of however are not restricted to:
1. The dam owners stopped working to divulge to regulators that throughout past unpermitted repair work, the release of kept tank water likewise launched kept sediment downstream onto salmon environment and into public drinking water materials. State and federal license approvals for the 2023 repair work were offered after the dam owners informed regulators that the existence of intrusive marine plants in the tank would avoid release of sediment, and furthermore, that they would protect a 50′ x 100′ tarpaulin to the tank bed with sandbags. The plants and tarpaulin will go through the full blast and circulation of the river streaming through the dam’s 2 narrow water release gates. (Usually, Winchester Dam repair work have actually taken place as soon as every 3 years given that the 1960s, however public records reveal no authorizations for repair work prior to 2023.)
2. State records reveal the dam owners have actually formerly fixed the dam by setting up great deals of hazardous pressure dealt with wood slabs. The U.S. Epa and U.S. Department of Person Provider suggest that dealt with wood not be utilized where it might be available in direct or indirect contact with public drinking water. Winchester Dam is simply 50 feet upstream from Roseburg’s public drinking water consumption. Regardless of this, regulators have actually not needed elimination of any pressure dealt with wood from the structure. The 2023 repair work strategy requires drilling great deals of holes into the dam’s pressure dealt with wood to protect a steel lattice.
3. Previous repair work utilized rock fill to fix the lots of cavities within the wood main period of the dam. As a cost-saving approach, the 2023 dam cavity repair work will desert rock fill in favor of injections of chemical extensive polyurethane foam, a recognized source of microplastic contamination, simply 50 feet upstream from Roseburg’s public drinking water consumption.
4. The Winchester Dam owners were informed by state authorities in a January 2023 letter that they were keeping water in excess of their submitted water best claim SW 398. The letter advised the owners to come into compliance by reducing their tank swimming pool by 1.5 feet, or to declare a brand-new water right. The owners have actually ignored the state’s directions, and rather proposed a repair work including a tank fill up that will likely hurt downstream water rights, consisting of certificated instream rights planned to safeguard the North Umpqua’s indispensable fisheries, consisting of Oregon Coast Coho, which are noted under the federal Endangered Types Act. Regardless of continuous illegal storage of water, the dam’s repair work proposition has actually gotten all needed state and federal authorizations.
Damage from the most current previous Winchester Dam repair work is well-documented. According to state private investigators, contamination from the 2018 repair work at the dam deteriorated marine environment, eliminated fish, and hurt the main drinking water source for the City of Roseburg and the Umpqua Basin Water Association– serving around 37,700 individuals integrated. Private investigators likewise discovered that dam repair work were performed without following understood finest management practices, even after authorities supplied the dam owners with details beforehand on how to safeguard water quality and fish. Winchester Dam lies totally within state designated Important Salmonid Environment and federally designated vital environment for Oregon Coast Coho salmon safeguarded under the federal Endangered Types Act.
Regrettably, 2018 most likely wasn’t the very first time Winchester Dam repair work contaminated drinking water materials and hurt North Umpqua fish and wildlife. Public records explain “leak” throughout one previous repair work and a state authorities grumbling to the specialist “about cement in the river and no authorizations.”
According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Winchester Dam hampers access to 160 miles of high quality environment for salmon and steelhead. Just recently, the union required the owners to lastly accept a schedule for bringing their emergency situation readiness into compliance with state law for the very first time in years.
River supporters will be recording the repair work throughout the 3 week fish migration closure and offered to press reporters for remark.
TO FIND OUT MORE PLEASE CONTACT:
Jim McCarthy, WaterWatch of Oregon, 541-941-9450, jim@waterwatch.org
Kirk Blaine, Native Fish Society, 307-299-7834, kirk@nativefishsociety.org
