Oregon State Senator David Brock Smith and Representative Virgle Osborne are in the pocket of the Winchester Water Control District (WWCD), owners of the condemned and uninsurable Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua River.
Even though he has no prior experience in dam repair, in August 2023, Ryan Beckley, president of the WWCD, inexplicably awarded the $3 million Winchester Dam repair contract to his own company, TerraFirma Foundation Systems. But Beckley violated his permits, singlehandedly perpetrating the biggest fish kill of the year on an Oregon river in 2023.
Now the Oregon Department of Justice is suing the WWCD for $27.5 million for the needless slaughter of more than half a million wild native migratory fish.
Senate Interim Committee On Natural Resources and Wildfire chairman Jeff Golden invited Beckley to address the committee at their September 24, 2024, informational hearing on the Winchester Dam at the State Capitol.
At this time, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife rated Winchester Dam the worst manmade obstacle to fish on any river in Oregon.
According to Golden, Beckley declined to appear because “he doesn’t think it’s appropriate” that the committee was discussing the derelict fish killing dam that provides no hydro-electricity, irrigation, or flood control – its solitary function is as a private waterski lake for a few dozen speed boat-owning lakefront homeowners.
Instead, Beckley sent his two lackeys to lobby the committee on his behalf – Oregon State Senator David Brock Smith and State Representative Virgle Osborne.
At this time, David Brock Smith was the only member of the committee who has never been elected to the state senate. Rather he was appointed to his state senate seat by Douglas County Commissioner Tim Freeman a council of county commissioners.
Smith is an outspoken supporter of the approximately 100 members of the Winchester Water Control District (WWCD), as is his cohort, State Representative Virgle Osborne.
Although Osborne is neither a senator or committee member, he nevertheless accompanied Smith to the September 24, 2024, Senate Interim Committee On Natural Resources and Wildfire hearing and sat close by his side throughout the session, as if Smith was too junior to lobby without backup, on behalf of the owners of the most dangerous and illegal private waterski lake in Oregon.
Smith read from a script apparently prepared by Beckley’s attorney Dominic Carollo, while Osborne watched him like a mother hen.
Repeating a pervasive urban myth even the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has stated in writing is entirely false—that the Winchester Dam somehow keeps smallmouth bass from migrating upstream—Smith read from his prepared script:
“Thank you, Mr. Chair, for acknowledging the world-famous fish runs on – on the North Umpqua, and the dam being there since 1890, facilitating those world-famous fish runs on the North Umpqua because – um – many of us believe that the – the dam itself keeps the – – keeps the native invasives like smallmouth bass from being able to (glancing at his notes) reach above the dam and therefore, assist in those world, famous fish runs.”
Although time had been allotted during the hearing for questions from the public, Smith filibustered, stumbling over his script and repeatedly asking the same questions, effectively running out the clock. Consequently, no questions from the public were heard.
It was apparent to everyone in the room that Smith was simply a shill for Ryan Beckley.
Senator Floyd Prozanski, a Democrat who spent 18 years as District Four’s Member of Congress in the Oregon House of Representatives, has been outspoken his criticisms of the damage caused by the botched August 2023 repairs of the Winchester Dam that left the dam leaking worse than it had before. Although he remained silent through the entire September 24, 2024, hearing, he ultimately lost his patience during Smith’s obviously scripted and partisan rant, and rebuked him, “You’re working off a script there for somebody!”
That somebody is clearly Ryan Beckley, ODFW’s fish kill champion of 2023.
On August 17, 2023, during the “repairs” of crumbling and bowed dam face, Beckely summoned his minions to the dam for a photo opportunity and press conference. Senator Smith and Representative Osborne, as well as the three Douglas County Commissioners, Tim Freeman, Tom Kress, and Chris Boice appeared as ordered.
Beckley told the Roseburg News-Review that dam repair project was a “permanent solution — a fix for 100 years to come,” – an assertion that he was well aware was unsupported by facts.
At the August 17, 2023, press conference, Smith and Osborne, as well as the three county commissioners, saw with their own eyes the thousands of dead Pacific lamprey lying in the mud, as well as the exposed pressure-treated and creosote-treated lumber used to patch the dam face. They saw the rubber tire mats Beckley used to construct a roadbed across the dewatered riverbed that leach a chemical called 6PPD Quinone, which is the second most lethal substance on Earth to salmon.
Treated lumber and creosote-treated lumber leach copper, arsenic, and chromium, and these chemicals are a “probable human carcinogen” prohibited by the Environmental Protection Agency “for use in contact with food, feed, or drinking water”
But Winchester Dam, which is built of creosote treated and pressure treated wood, is just 50-feet upstream from the drinking water intake for 37,700 county residents.
Despite having seen with his own eyes the devastating damage Beckely and his contractors caused to the North Umpqua River, two weeks later, Rep. Osborne issued an August 30, 2023, press release stating:
“My office has received numerous letters regarding Winchester Dam… After many phone calls and letters, I began my own investigation of the work being done on the dam and the folks conducting the work… There were numerous other actions being taken on the site that were in full compliance with DEQ [Oregon Department of Environmental Quality], ODFW [Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife] and many other agencies that are monitoring the site… My observations are backed up by facts [sic] is that the Winchester Water Control District and associated contractors are in compliance with requirements to do the repairs on the dam… I would like to thank Ryan Beckley for letting us do a site inspection and exceeding all required expectations to protect the fish and the environment.”
However, it is now apparent that Osborne’s assertions were erroneous.
On October 7, 2023, the Oregon Department of Justice filed a $27.5 million lawsuit against the WWCD for numerous permit violations and an unprecedented fish kill:
• Performing work outside the scope of the project description described in the permit application materials.
• Construction of access roads and a work platform downstream of the dam using tire mats.
• Failing to implement erosion control measures to prevent the movement of soil into water of the state.
• Failing to provide unobstructed fish passage.
• Placing biologically harmful materials — uncured concrete — in the North Umpqua River.
• Placing biologically harmful materials — tire mats — in the North Umpqua River.
• Operating equipment in the flowing channel of the river.
• Failing to install a liner upstream of the spill gates to minimize turbidity.
• Failing to report the concrete discharges to Oregon Emergency Response Service.
• Failing to isolate the in-water areas of work from the active flowing stream.
• Failing to remove all construction materials and temporary fill from below Ordinary High Water before the expiration of the in-water work window approved by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Although Representative Osborne’s disingenuous statements were not, as he claimed, “backed up by facts,” he has never retracted or apologized for his false claims.
Osborne and Smith have apparently doubled down on their allegiance with the WWCD, turning their backs on Douglas County voters.
The 136-year-old Winchester Dam was condemned in 1976. It’s rated a “high hazard,” meaning it will kill people when it fails
Many Douglas County voters are alarmed that their elected officials are willing to perjure themselves to support the wealthy WWCD members, many of whom live outside the county and the state. These voters perceive the dam as a derelict relic from a bygone era when the needs of the few outweighed the needs of the many. Many voters feel the Douglas County commissioners, as well as Smith and Osborne, are out-of-step with the values of their constituents.
Curiously, since the news of the $27.5 million judgment hit the newspapers one year ago today, Ryan Beckley hasn’t said a word about the Winchester Dam. It is as if his lawyer Dominic Carollo told Beckley to stop making false statements himself – and to have his lobbyists, Senator Smith and Representative Virgle Osborne make them for him.
