NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Many of Oregon’s dams in dangerous condition
By SIERRA DAWN
MCCLAIN
Capital Press
NEWPORT — People in
blazers and strapped-on boo-
ties waded through the dark
intake tunnel of a dam, flash-
lights in hand, stirring rust-col-
ored silt into the water. Spiders
and large black crickets scur-
ried across the wet walls. And
water trickled from seepage
holes — vulnerable breakage
points inside the tunnel.
“This is the stuff night-
mares are made of,” said Jenny
Dresler, grassroots director of
the Public Affairs Council.
The city of Newport’s engi-
neer was leading about a dozen
politicians, community lead-
ers and water experts under-
ground into the intake of Ore-
gon’s second most dangerous
dam — Big Creek Dam No. 2
— last week in Newport.
Gov. Kate Brown approved
$4 million for Newport’s dam
project Aug. 9, but the money
won’t be available until 2021
and the danger is far from over.
Across Oregon, water
infrastructure is crumbling,
funding is scarce and the dis-
connect between bureaucrats
and communities has exac-
erbated tensions over water.
But small Oregon communi-
ties like Newport are showing
that citizen activism can make
a difference.
The two Newport reser-
voirs, behind Big Creek Dam
No. 1 (Lower) and Big Creek
Dam No. 2 (Upper), are the
Capital Press Photo/Sierra Dawn McClain
Racquel Rancier of the Oregon Water Resources Department, left, takes a photo of a seepage
hole inside the Big Creek dam intake while Rep. David Gomberg, D-Neotsu, right, shines his
flashlight on the vulnerable area.
quake of only 3.0 or greater on
the Richter Scale.
Constructed in 1951 and
1968, respectively, the lower
and upper dams are crum-
bling, and the soil underneath
is at risk of liquefying.
Although Gross has been
pushing for a decade for
removal of the old dams and
construction of a new one, the
soils under the dams reached
dangerous levels this year.
Oregon has 75 high-haz-
ard dams, which means if the
dams fail, they will result in
significant damage and loss
of life. Of that number, nine
are in poor condition and
seven in unsatisfactory con-
city’s sole water supply, and
the secondary water source for
surrounding areas.
According to Tim Gross,
the city of Newport’s public
works director and city engi-
neer, when these dams col-
lapse, they’ll kill everyone and
destroy everything in their
path. Imagine rushing water
at a rate of 285 average-sized
swimming pools per second
— and that’s just from the
upper dam.
The Oregon Coast lies
near the Cascadia Subduc-
tion Zone, but Gross said it
wouldn’t require the Big One
for these dams to collapse. To
fail, the dams need an earth-
THURSDAY
Partly sunny
FRIDAY
Beautiful with
clouds and sun
SATURDAY
Mostly sunny and
pleasant
SUNDAY
Mostly sunny and
pleasant
Nice with plenty of
sunshine
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
88° 58°
80° 53°
86° 63°
84° 58°
82° 53°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
90° 60°
83° 53°
88° 65°
87° 59°
OREGON FORECAST
86° 56°
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
66/56
86/55
82/52
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
89/61
Lewiston
67/55
92/62
Astoria
67/56
Pullman
Yakima 90/59
67/53
94/64
Portland
Hermiston
69/57
The Dalles 90/60
Salem
Corvallis
68/53
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
88/54
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
71/55
84/48
90/55
Ontario
99/65
Caldwell
Burns
93°
55°
87°
57°
105° (2009) 38° (1929)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
69/55
0.00"
0.05"
0.13"
4.61"
5.13"
6.05"
WINDS (in mph)
97/62
91/42
0.00"
0.10"
0.27"
9.71"
6.49"
8.22"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 87/51
69/55
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
88/58
74/58
94°
56°
86°
57°
106° (1897) 38° (1916)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
68/53
Aberdeen
86/57
80/59
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
68/58
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
83/60
Thu.
WSW 8-16
W 8-16
SW 6-12
W 7-14
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
80/45
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:02 a.m.
7:54 p.m.
10:55 p.m.
12:00 p.m.
Last
New
First
Full
Aug 23
Aug 30
Sep 5
Sep 13
By SEAN HART
EO Media Group
JOHN DAY — A Grant
County employee has been
getting paid not to go to work
for five months now.
Grant County Sheriff’s
Office Deputy Abigail Mob-
ley is still employed and
being paid by the county, but
her last day in the office was
Feb. 4, according to records
obtained by the Eagle.
From Feb. 5 through
March 15, she used a combi-
nation of vacation, sick and
comp hours she had accrued.
After two scheduled days
off, she was placed on paid
administrative leave March
18 and has remained on it
through July, the last time
card available.
From mid-March through
July, Grant County has paid
her $16,416 in wages. During
that time, she also accrued 10
hours of vacation and eight
hours of sick leave per month,
costing an additional $1,768.
Each additional month she
is on administrative leave will
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
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-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
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ice
60s
cold front
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70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
high
110s
low
Portland Public Schools
nearly scammed out of $2.9M
PORTLAND — District officials say Port-
land Public Schools was bilked for $2.9 mil-
lion when a fraudster posing as one of the dis-
trict’s construction contractors hoodwinked
employees into green-lighting the payment.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reported Dep-
uty Superintendent for Business Operations
Claire Hertz says the swindle was caught
while the millions were still in the fraud-
ster’s bank account, and the money should be
returned to the district’s Wells Fargo account
in the next few days.
A letter to district parents from Superinten-
dent Guadalupe Guerrero says two employees
who approved the payment were put on paid
administrative leave.
The fraudulent transfer was discovered Fri-
day, and Hertz said the district’s money man-
agers must now attend a mandatory training
on fraud prevention scheduled for Tuesday.
She also said no one at the district will
be allowed to authorize payments until after
the training.
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cost county taxpayers about
$4,200.
These figures only include
wages and accruals, not other
benefits such as health care.
Her husband, Undersheriff
Zach Mobley, was also placed
on paid administrative leave
March 18 after two scheduled
days off.
His March time card
shows six days of administra-
tive leave until the time card
ends March 25.
On his April time card,
however, nothing is filled
in indicating whether the
time was actually worked or
administrative leave.
According to Dominic
Carollo, an attorney repre-
senting Grant County and the
sheriff’s office in response to
a public records request by the
Blue Mountain Eagle, Zach
Mobley was back “actively
employed” as of April 25,
though Carollo refused to
provide the actual dates Zach
Mobley was on leave.
Zach Mobley earns a
salary of $5,123 per month,
so each day of leave cost
about $170.
In response to the Eagle‘s
initial records request April 5,
Grant County Sheriff Glenn
Palmer said the records may
be exempt from disclosure
under state statutes that shield
information about a “person-
nel investigation of a pub-
lic safety employee” and
“investigatory information
compiled for criminal law
purposes.”
However, neither exemp-
tion applies if “the public
interest requires disclosure in
the particular instance.”
Palmer announced his
intention to resign as sheriff
Aug. 14.
The Eagle continues to
pursue its records request for
other public documents to
explain the situation.
In April, county officials
declined to comment because
it was a personnel issue.
Abigail Mobley, Zach
Mobley, Palmer and the
members of the Grant County
Court did not respond to
emailed requests for com-
ment on Friday afternoon.
BRIEFLY
NATIONAL EXTREMES
High 114° in Thermal, Calif. Low 30° in Stanley, Idaho
for this dam project.”
Community
members
flooded Brown’s office with
calls, emails and letters.
Roblan, Rep. David Gonberg,
D-Neotsu, and others met with
the governor, attempting to
change her mind.
On Aug. 9, Brown did an
about-face and decided not to
veto the funding.
Mike Harryman, resil-
iency officer for Brown’s
office, was on the tour at
Big Creek Dam No. 2 on
Tuesday.
“It’s a good thing the gov-
ernor didn’t veto the fund-
ing,” said Harryman, “or
else you’d all be stringing me
upside-down by my boots
inside the dam.”
Racquel Rancier, water
policy analyst at the Oregon
Water Resources Depart-
ment, said the funding is
a victory for Newport, but
Oregon’s water infrastruc-
ture still has a long way to
go.
“We’ve got to celebrate
the little victories,” she said.
As the group slogged out
of the wet dam intake tunnel,
they joked about which of
them should get left behind
to cover up the constantly
flowing seepage holes, like
the fable of the little Dutch
boy who put his finger in a
dike to save Holland.
“It’s too bad it’s not that
simple,” said Roblan. He
glanced sideways at the dam,
an uneasy expression on his
face. “Let’s get out of here.”
County pays more than $18K for
five-month administrative leave
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
dition, according to Stephanie
Prybyl, water policy analyst
at Oregon Water Resources
Department.
Funding is scarce. Getting
a federal dam grant is highly
competitive, and the pool of
money is meager. According
to Tia Cavender, Newport’s
grants consultant of record,
the dam project in Newport
alone will cost up to $80 mil-
lion. But for the current fiscal
year, FEMA’s National Dam
Rehabilitation Program has a
grant pool of only $10 million
— for the entire U.S.
Cavender said dam owners
must apply for small grants —
local, state and federal — to
raise the money that’s needed,
and even then, it won’t be
enough.
To build the dams in New-
port, said Gross, the city will
ultimately have to tax its resi-
dents to make up for whatever
portion isn’t funded.
“This small community
can’t afford much,” said Gross.
“If the tax is too high, they’ll
leave.”
The timeline, said Caven-
der, also poses a challenge.
Grant money often comes
with strings attached and spe-
cific timeline requirements,
and the grants can conflict
with one another.
Funding is even more lim-
ited for private dam own-
ers, such as farmers who own
small reservoirs, according to
April Snell, executive direc-
tor of the Water Resources
Congress.
But communities are rally-
ing together to make change
happen.
After the 2019 legislative
session, Brown said Aug. 4
she might veto the $4 million
appropriation in House Bill
5050 to pay for the Big Creek
Dams project.
Newport rallied to fight for
its water supply.
“Coastal Oregonians are
tough people,” said Sen. Arnie
Roblan, D-Coos Bay. “They
usually get ignored in the leg-
islature, and it’s their resilience
that’s made the difference. It’s
the rural folks, the fishermen’s
wives and the local groups that
have banded together to fight
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Man drowns at Crater Lake
CRATER LAKE — Authorities say a
man drowned after jumping off a rock cliff
into Crater Lake.
The National Park Service says the
unidentified 27-year-old jumped at Cleet-
wood Cove around 4:40 p.m. Sunday, and
did not resurface.
Crater Lake National Park spokes-
woman Marsha McCabe says the cliff the
man had jumped from was about 25 feet
high.
McCabe says the cliff known as “Jump-
ing Rock” is a popular recreation spot and
was not a prohibited area for jumping.
She says officials have not yet deter-
mined exactly why the man drowned.
During the summer, the surface of the
lake warms up to about 60 degrees Fahr-
enheit, but the average temperature of the
lake is around 38 degrees Fahrenheit.
Swimming is only allowed in the area
around Cleetwood Cove and along the
shore of Wizard Island.
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