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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 22, 2016
EO Media Group/File Photo
A large gravel bar washed over nearly half of the Dillon Diversion Dam on the Umatilla River outside Echo in March 2014. The dam could be removed as early as next year.
Removal of Dillon Dam could happen next summer
Dam blocked ish,
was maintenance
nightmare for years
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO Media Group
E
CHO — A headache for farm-
ers and ish on the lower Uma-
tilla River for decades, the Dil-
lon Dam is inally near its end.
The Umatilla Basin Watershed
Council and Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
plan to remove the troublesome
diversion dam near Echo by next
summer. Not only has the concrete
structure long blocked passage for
native salmon, steelhead and lam-
prey, it has been a maintenance
nightmare as gravel bars routinely
wash over the irrigation headgate.
But before the dam can come out,
water rights for the local Dillon Irri-
gation Co. need to be rerouted from
another source. The watershed coun-
cil came up with a design in 2014
that taps into the neighboring West-
land Irrigation Canal, running 11,000
feet of pipe down Andrews Road and
‘The pipeline is the key project. If that doesn’t
happen, the dam won’t be removed.’
Jon Staldine
executive director for the watershed council
back into the Dillon Irrigation Ditch
— completely bypassing the dam.
Funding for the project appears
to be in place after the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wild-
life’s Restoration and Enhancement
Board approved a $175,500 grant in
May. The Oregon Fish and Wildlife
Commission still needs to approve
the grant at its August meeting in
Salem, but Jon Staldine, executive
director for the watershed coun-
cil, said their proposal has been
well-received.
“They saw it was really a collab-
orative project,” Staldine said.
The watershed council had
already received $350,000 from the
Oregon Watershed Enhancement
Board and $20,000 from the tribes
to build the pipeline. Staldine said
the grant from the Department of
Fish and Wildlife will allow them to
start construction in November or
December, wrapping up by Febru-
?
9-1-WHAT?
ary so farmers can get back to work.
“The pipeline is the key project,”
he said. “If that doesn’t happen, the
dam won’t be removed.”
Dillon Dam is operated by the
Dillon Irrigation Co., which was
established in 1897. The company
is currently made up of three land-
owners with approximately 1,400
total acres. Mike Taylor owns the
Double M Ranch, the largest of the
bunch, and also serves as president
of the irrigation company.
Taylor has been talking about
getting rid of the Dillon Dam for 15
years before the watershed council
took the reins. He said the Dillon
Irrigation Co. collects $10 per acre
from landowners, most of which
goes toward paying for mainte-
nance at the dam.
Whenever high lows sweep
down the river, it washes gravel
and debris that plugs up the head-
gate and ish ladders at the dam.
It’s up to the producers to come in
and clean up the mess. Taylor said
they’re looking forward to having a
more reliable water delivery system
from the Westland Canal.
“Getting the dam out of the
river is a good thing,” Taylor said.
“We’ve been working on it for a
while.”
Once the pipeline is complete,
the watershed council and tribes
can turn their attention to physi-
cally removing the dam from the
river. Staldine said they are work-
ing together on a design and apply-
ing for permits, which could take
four to six months to be approved.
If all goes smoothly, in-stream
construction will take place some-
time between July 15 and Sept. 30
of next year. Staldine said they hav-
en’t yet worked out the cost, but
said it will be paid for out of the
tribes’ Fish Accords with the Bon-
neville Power Administration.
Dillon Dam was originally built
in 1915 and replaced sometime in
the mid-1970s. It does have ish and
lamprey ladders, though Staldine
said they’re not up to current stan-
dards. Bill Duke, ish biologist with
the Department of Fish and Wild-
life in Pendleton, said the dam has
been a complete barrier to lamprey
in past years, and a partial barrier to
salmon.
“In some years, it’s a signiicant
portion of the fall Chinook run that
gets delayed down there,” Duke
said.
Staldine said the problem affects
juveniles as well as adult ish stuck
below the dam. The likelihood of
survival for juveniles reared below
the dam are virtually non-existent
due to high water temperatures in
the summertime, he said.
Yanking the dam will allow more
ish, including fall and spring Chi-
nook runs, to make it to their tradi-
tional spawning grounds farther up
the Umatilla River, boosting sur-
vival and providing more ishing
opportunities.
“We won’t have ish caught
below that are essentially getting
fried every year,” Staldine said.
Deer on a stick
M
essage to the three fearless folks chasing after a deer with a stick in
Astoria: We’re rooting for the deer.
In fact, everyone is rooting for the deer ...
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