LOCAL
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, August 11, 2021
A5
Wallowa Lake Dam funding approved
Refurbishment work set to begin fall 2022; decision yet to be made on fi sh passage options
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — Now
that the $14 million in
state lottery funds has
been approved by the Ore-
gon Legislature, the big
question that remains is
what kind of fi sh passage
the refurbished dam will
include.
State Sen. Bill Hansell,
R-Athena, confi rmed last
month that the lottery funds
were approved by the Leg-
islature and Gov. Kate
Brown was expected to
sign the budget.
“We’ve got the funding
across the goal line, and
now it’s implementing the
application of it,” Hansell
said. “Now the baton will
be handed off to where they
sell the bonds.”
He said the bonds are
expected to be sold in the
spring 2022 and the actual
funds will come through
later. He said he is unsure
of the exact timeline.
“As far as I know we’re
back to what we’ve always
done,” he said.
He added that the stake-
holders in the dam project
can begin spending on it
before getting the proceeds
from the bonds, but they do
so at their own risk.
The four major stake-
holders include the Wal-
lowa Lake Irrigation Dis-
trict — the owner of the
dam — the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wild-
life, the Nez Perce Tribe’s
Department of Fisher-
ies Resources Manage-
ment and the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation. Minor
stakeholders
also
are
involved, including the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice, which has jurisdiction
over bull trout; the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration; the Oregon
Department of Environ-
mental Quality and others.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Swimmers enjoy the water of Wallowa Lake near the Wallowa Lake Dam on Friday, July 30, 2021. Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena,
confi rmed that the $14 million in state lottery funds being counted on to pay the lion’s share of replacing the dam was approved
by the Legislature.
“We didn’t collect
enough to spend what we’d
authorized,” Hansell said.
The project originally
called for a $16 million
refurbishment of the cen-
tury-old dam that would
improve the spillways,
include a fi sh passage, add
more concrete for weight,
replace the fi ve conduit
gates with new ones and to
upgrade the electrical and
instrumentation, accord-
ing to the June 23, 2020,
Chieftain.
Dan Butterfi eld, presi-
dent irrigation district, was
encouraged by the news
from the Legislature.
“We keep gaining,” he
said. “Everything’s look-
ing good.”
The $2 million diff er-
ence between the lottery
funds and the overall cost
is supposed to be made up
by “other sources,” But-
terfi eld said, adding that
the stakeholders may need
to reassess the fi nal cost
given the increasing cost
of building materials.
Jim Harbeck, the fi eld
Money concerns
mount as time passes
A year ago, lottery sales
were far too low to fund the
bonds.
“WE SURE WOULD’VE LOVED
TO HAVE HAD THAT DAM THIS
YEAR. … WE’LL BE ABLE TO GO
ANOTHER 8 FEET (OF WATER)
WITH THE NEW DAM. HAVING
THAT EXTRA STORAGE WILL
BE HUGE FOR THIS VALLEY.”
Dan Butterfi eld, president of the
Wallowa Lake Irrigation District
offi ce supervisor for Nez
Perce Fisheries, said the
latest cost estimates were
from 2017.
“I imagine those costs
are higher now.”
Butterfi eld said the
stakeholders have applied
for a grant through the
American Rescue Plan Act
that could help with the
extra funding.
Butterfi eld said the proj-
ect has been in the works
— at some level — for
about 20 years. Now, he
said they are planning to
begin construction in fall
2022 and have it ready by
spring 2023.
“That’s what our engi-
neer’s designing for and
planning for,” he said.
“We sure would’ve loved
to have had that dam this
year. … We’ll be able to
go another 8 feet (of water)
with the new dam. Having
that extra storage will be
huge for this valley.”
Fish passage options
But it’s up to the engi-
neer, McMillen, Jacobs
and Associates of Boise,
Idaho, to determine the
type of fi sh passage that
will be included and to
fi nalize the plans for the
dam.
Wallowa County native
Mort McMillen, the engi-
neer on the project, said a
fi sh passage to allow both
upstream and downstream
migration of fi sh is being
worked into the project. It
will be determined by the
stakeholders based on the
plans his fi rm comes up
with.
“Everybody has their
preferences,”
McMillen
said. “We haven’t arrived
at the fi nal selection. …
We’re working really good
as a group.”
The fi sh passage is a
crucial element of the
dam’s new design. In fact,
Harbeck said, state law
requires the inclusion of a
satisfactory fi sh passage.
There are diff erent
options for the type of fi sh
passage. The tribe pre-
fers a “volitional passage”
— one that allows fi sh to
ascend to or descend from
the lake at their own voli-
tion. That allows adults to
swim upstream to spawn
and juveniles to swim
downstream once hatched.
“It lets fi sh pass when
they so choose as opposed
to putting some type of
human time stamp on it,”
he said.
Jeff Yanke, a watershed
manager with the ODFW,
said it’s up to the engineer
to select a type of passage.
“We’ve been talking
concepts and it’s up to
them to pick one,” he said.
The “volitional pas-
sage” is often known as a
fi sh ladder.
Another option is the
“trap and haul” option
that’s a type of water ele-
vator to move the fi sh,
Yanke said.
Meetings continue
in September
The stakeholders and the
engineer have met regularly
to iron out the details of the
new dam. In recent months,
given the coronavirus pan-
demic, they’ve met virtu-
ally. The last meeting was
April 29, Harbeck said.
He said all four parties
have been meeting consis-
tently and “all four … must
come to an agreement.”
He said the stakehold-
ers expect to meet again in
September after irrigation
season.
“We haven’t gotten very
far along on that topic,” he
said of the fi sh passage, cit-
ing “meeting fatigue” as a
reason they haven’t met
since April.
McMillen said he hopes
to have a plan for the dam
and a projected cost esti-
mate “sometime in late
fall.”
But, he noted, the fund-
ing package that had been
slowed is one hurdle
overcome.
“Now that’s back on
track,” he said.
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