Douglas County Commissioners Tom Kress, Chris Boice, and Tim Freeman
Concerned citizens are urged to attend the Douglas County Commissioners meeting at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, January 7, in room 216 of the Douglas County Courthouse regarding a petition for the formation of the Winchester Ridge Domestic Water Supply District.
The proposed water supply district is apparently being created to benefit Ryan Beckley, owner of TerraFirma Foundation Systems, and chairman of the board of directors of the Winchester Water Control District (WWCD), the owners of the controversial Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua River. The plan is to use the new water supply district to turn the private water ski lake behind Winchester Dam into a reservoir essential for water supply.
Is this a plan to foist some of the cost of maintaining the private water ski lake can be foisted upon the county taxpayers?
Commissioners Freeman, Boice, and Kress did their level best to prevent the public from learning about this meeting. But a neighbor saw a notice posted on the crowded bulletin board at Sherm’s Thunderbird Market on N.W. Stewart Parkway in Roseburg and alerted the community.
They claim the new district would manage water utility services for domestic residents living in Winchester Ridge, a neighborhood in the unincorporated community of Winchester. The chief petitioner for the new district is Carl T. Coffman of Oregon City. The property is owned by WWCD member Melvin “Bud” Smith’s Norway Development Company.
But why would the county commissioners want to create a new water supply district on the ridge on the southern bank of the river, in an area with no houses or infrastructure—only a few wells—on the eastern edge of town by Kenneth Ford Drive?
An Oregon assumed business name was filed for the Winchester Ridge Water District on April 14, 2022. Some have asserted that the district has a groundwater system that services 26 users, but it has no water treatment facility. However, this has not been verified because the county does not provide maps of the area in question.
According to Oregon Revised Statute Chapter 264, a domestic water supply district is tasked with supplying members in its boundaries with water for any domestic purposes. The district is also in charge of fixing and collecting water rates, and can propose increases to water rates.
Condemned in 1976, the 450-foot Winchester Dam, provides no hydroelectricity, no irrigation, and no flood control. For 57 years, its sole function has been as a mile-and-a-half long private waterski lake used exclusively by the WWCD, at the exclusion of the public. The WWCD is an association of 100 privileged homeowners whose properties surround the dam site.
The Douglas County Commissioners are committed to allowing the WWCD to continue its stranglehold on the North Umpqua River—the number one steelhead stream in North America, and some say, in the world. They will do whatever it takes to ensure their wealthy and privileged campaign donors in the WWCD don’t lose their private water ski lake behind the Winchester Dam—the last creosote treated and pressure treated dam in the United States.
To this end, the commissioners have championed efforts to rebuild Rock Creek Hatchery, the worst performing hatchery in the state. They want the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) to rescind their decision that the agency will not rebuild the Rock Creek Hatchery that burned in the 2020 Archie Creek Fire.
But most Douglas County voters don’t know that, because it provides no public purpose, the Winchester Water Control District (WWCD) itself is, in fact, an illegal entity according to Oregon law. Oregon Revised Statute 553.020 specifically requires all water control districts in the State of Oregon to provide a public purpose such as hydroelectricity, irrigation, or flood control.
The same statute makes it perfectly clear that “recreation” is not a public purpose.
Despite WWCD’s clear and ongoing violation of this law, the Oregon Water Resources Department (the agency that condemned the dam 50 years ago) inexplicably allows the WWCD to exist and refuses to enforce ORS 553.020 in this instance.
Many assume this water supply district plan is the brainchild of Ryan Beckley and his attorney, Dominic Carollo—a way to gain legitimacy for the illegal Winchester Water Control District.
On September 17, 2024, ODFW served the WWCD with a Notice of Noncompliance over a laundry list of permit violations incurred by Ryan Beckley during his attempted repairs of the crumbling 135-year-old dam in August of 2023.
ODFW’s Notice of Noncompliance requires the WWCD to complete construction of a new state-of-the-art fish ladder at the Winchester Dam by the end of 2028. This entails permanently abandoning the existing substandard 80-year-old concrete north bank fishway which is 400 feet away from the mainstream, and installing a new fish ladder at the south end of the dam.
The new fish ladder at Winchester Dam is estimated to cost more than $70 million—more money than the WWCD has spent on maintenance of the Winchester Dam since the district acquired the condemned dam in 1969.
The county commissioners and the WWCD board of directors know that the last time they allowed Ryan Beckley to drain the private water ski lake behind Winchester Dam in August 2023, it resulted in a fish kill of 550,000 wild migratory native fish and an ODFW fine of $27.6 million. And Beckley apparently committed so many infractions of his permit during his attempted repairs, now the WWCD has been ordered to build a new fish ladder.
The county commissioners and the WWCD board of directors know if that if the private water ski lake is again allowed to be drained, it will cause another catastrophic fish kill, and a litany of permit violations, and multi-million-dollar lawsuits.
This is why the county commissioners have embraced Beckley and Dominic Carollo’s plan. They are literally willing to build a new neighborhood on Winchester Ridge to justify the existence of the new water supply district—which will likely be administered by the WWCD.
The proposed Winchester Ridge Domestic Water Supply District is part of a plan to change the status of Winchester Dam from a private water ski lake to a reservoir and a vital county water supply. This will make the condemned Winchester Dam essential infrastructure to a domestic water supply source. And this water supply district won’t be illegal, like the WWCD is presently.
According to ORS Chapter 264, “A water supply district has the power to assess, levy and collect taxes in an amount each year not to exceed one-fourth of one percent (0.0025) of the real market value of all taxable property within the limits of the district,” reads “A district may annually also assess, levy and collect a special tax upon all such property in an amount sufficient to pay the yearly interest on bonds theretofore issued by the district and then outstanding….”
The abilities of a domestic water supply district also extend to matters of public safety. When authorized by electors, a district may purchase and maintain fire equipment, install fire hydrants and adopt its own fire prevention code.
“Any district, when authorized by the electors as provided by this subsection, may purchase fire apparatus and equipment and maintain, service and operate the same, and may enter into intergovernmental agreements under ORS chapter 190 for fire protection for its inhabitants,” reads ORS Chapter 264. “Such power shall only be given the board of commissioners by a majority of the votes cast by electors of the district at a special election called for such purpose by the board.”
If this is granted, the board of commissioners can levy a tax no higher than 0.0015% the market value of all taxable properties within district boundaries to help cover the costs of maintaining, providing and operating this fire equipment.
Beckley and the WWCD are committed to the principle that they would rather go to court than comply with state agency orders. To this end, WWCD sued ODFW, challenging the September 17, 2024, Notice of Noncompliance.
In December, senior administrative law judge Bradley Schmidt ruled that the WWCD must comply with ODFW’s order to immediately begin work to install the new fish passage consistent with the timeline and criteria set in the Notice of Noncompliance. The WWCD has from January 1 – December 31, 2026, to develop their project engineering design plans. Construction of the new fish ladder must be completed by December 31, 2028.
ODFW public information officer for the Umpqua and Rogue watersheds Meghan Duggan says Judge Schmidt’s ruling is not a final resolution in the case involving fish passage at Winchester dam, and it sets into motion further procedural actions.
The ODFW Commission will review the ruling and consider issuing a final fish passage order to the WWCD.
Predictably Ryan Beckley, insisted, “The [WWCD] strongly disagrees with the decision and will be appealing.”
Summer Baranko, WWCD secretary declared, “Our legal counsel strongly disagrees with the legal analysis, and the district is authorizing them to take further action, including pursuing review, and Court of Appeals.”
Only one thing is certain—Ryan Beckley and his WWCD cohorts would rather sue than comply with state and federal laws and regulations. This ensures that the “calculated total monthly association fee” paid by the approximately 100 homeowners in the WWCD, to cover all the legal expenses, will continue to increase exponentially. And most of them don’t own a speedboat or use the private water ski lake.
It is worth remembering, on April 1, 2020, a letter was sent to the Winchester (WWCD board of directors offering to permanently remove the Winchester Dam “at little or no direct cost to the District [WWCD]” and to “end ongoing harm to fisheries and water quality in the North Umpqua River.”
The letter was signed by the leaders of Steamboaters, North Umpqua Foundation, Umpqua Watersheds, Inc., Umpqua Valley Fly Fishers, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, Northwest Guides and Anglers Association, Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Associations, Oregon Wild, Port Orford Sustainable Seafood, Rogue Flyfishers, Pacific Rivers, Native Fish Society, Cascadia Wildlands, American Whitewater, and McKenzie Flyfishers.
It’s a standing offer that WWCD refuses to acknowledge.
In a graphic example of the pathology of wealth and power. The WWCD board of directors decided to spend millions of dollars in legal fees, in order to retain control of their private water ski lake, rather than allow these organizations to remove the dam at no cost to the WWCD.
