The 135-year-old Winchester Dam near Roseburg underwent repairs from August to early September 2023 that led to water contamination and the death of more than half-a-million Pacific lamprey. State agencies have fined the dam operators tens of millions of dollars, which the operators are attempting to appeal. (Photo by Kirk Blaine/Native Fish Society)
Legal fights over the future of a small southern Oregon dam are intensifying in the wake of botched repairs that led to the killing of half a million juvenile Pacific lamprey and record fines from state agencies.
The Winchester Water Control District and its contractors, TerraFirma Foundation Repair, are fighting tens of millions of dollars in fines and required construction work stemming from summer 2023 repairs to the 135-year-old Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua River near Roseburg. The recent victories on behalf of state agencies sparked renewed calls from conservation groups that those agencies order the demolition of the dam.
An administrative law judge earlier this month upheld more than $77,700 in fines imposed by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality on the district and TerraFirma for water quality violations, including spilling concrete into the river. That’s down from an initial $134,000 fine.
Senior Administrative Law Judge Elizabeth Jarry of the Oregon Office of Administrative Hearings in her ruling called the violations “flagrant,” “reckless” and in several instances “a gross deviation from the standard of care a reasonable person would observe in that situation.”
And just weeks before that, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission ordered the operators to pay for and install within four years a state-approved fish ladder potentially costing tens of millions of dollars to help fish migrate past the dam. A fish ladder recently installed at the Soda Springs dam upstream of Winchester cost roughly $70 million, according to Jim McCarthy, Southern Oregon program director for the nonprofit conservation group WaterWatch of Oregon.
All of this is on top of a $27.6 million fish and wildlife fine against the district and TerraFirma over the “significant and preventable” loss of lamprey that is still winding its way through courts.
Lamprey are on the state’s Sensitive Species List, meaning efforts are being made to ensure it does not continue to lose population and end up on the Endangered Species List. The fish have great cultural significance to Pacific Northwest tribes.
In turn, TerraFirma and the Winchester Water Control District are suing the state agencies.
Ryan Beckley, president of the Winchester Water Control District and owner of TerraFirma, said in an email that he is indemnifying the district in the case against the environmental quality department over the water quality fines, taking “sole responsibility for the dispute process and any associated expenses.”
“I fully intend to appeal this to an actual court,” he added. When it comes to the order to install fish passage, Beckley said the district “will be filing an appeal and we feel confident in our position.” Judges at the Oregon Court of Appeals would review the cases.
Deferred maintenance
Footing tens of millions in fines and fish passage on the dam could be a difficult venture for the Winchester Water Control District, which is made up of roughly 100 residents who have since the ‘60s enjoyed as a private lake the 1.7-mile-long reservoir created by the former hydroelectric dam. Built in the 1890s, it was given to residents by PacifiCorp at no cost, but they are responsible for maintenance.
Repairs undertaken by the district in recent years have repeatedly gone awry, including an emergency fish salvage in 2013 and fines in 2018 when concrete got into the water during repairs.
In 2023, the district was permitted to drain a portion of the dam reservoir where lamprey and other fish species live and migrate, with the requirement to execute a fish salvage to save vulnerable lamprey in the process. The dam repair job went to Beckley at TerraFrima, and the permit allowed the “take,” or killing, of no more than 30,000 juvenile lamprey in the process.
But state wildlife officials accused TerraFirma of draining the reservoir without enough people and resources to properly salvage the lamprey, which were left stranded and exposed within hours of the reservoir being drawn down. State officials observed the poorly executed fish salvage and called in emergency aid from agency employees in the area, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians.
In all, roughly 550,000 juvenile lamprey died.
TerraFirma also managed to rack up 10 violations of a key state water permit by failing to control erosion and sediment, failing to maintain fish passage during construction, exceeding the permitted amount of time to work in the water, spilling concrete into the river and failing to report that spillage. They were also penalized for using heavy-duty tire mats to make a temporary access road and platform in the river, potentially leaching chemicals and microplastics into the water.
Despite environmental officials demanding the mats be removed, water district employees and contractors continued to use them for weeks in “flagrant” and “unlawful” conduct, environmental quality department officials found.
Calls for demolition
The water resources department considers Winchester Dam a “high hazard dam” because it could have catastrophic consequences if it were to fail. The dam is upriver from a key drinking water source for the city of Roseburg and the Umpqua Basin Water Association. It’s also located in a state and federally designated fish habitat and home to migratory native species, including steelhead, coho salmon and lamprey, a culturally significant food source for the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, who live in the area.
Environmental groups that intervened to support the states’ case against the dam operators and TerraFirma are again calling for the dam to be removed. Doing so would reconnect 160 miles of North Umpqua River and allow unimpeded movement for native migratory fish.
“We have learned the hard way that Winchester Dam will continue to harm the North Umpqua and its invaluable salmon and steelhead runs until it is removed,” McCarthy of WaterWatch said in a statement.
“WaterWatch’s offer to remove the dam for little to no cost to the dam owners still stands,” he added.
Jeff Dose, vice president of the Steamboaters, a wild fish conservation group focused on the North Umpqua, said in a statement that “dam removal is critical if we wish to restore the imperiled salmon and steelhead populations of the North Umpqua River.”
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