The 276-foot Lookout Point Dam on the Middle Fork of the Willamette River in Oregon poses a major obstacle for tiny juvenile salmon as they attempt to migrate downstream. It’s one of nine dams that could have their hydroelectric generators shut down pending a review ordered by Congress
The thirteen dams situated in the Willamette River Basin, built and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, block access to critical steelhead and salmon spawning habitat upstream.
The Upper Willamette River Chinook salmon is classified as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The dams on the Willamette are an impassable barrier to adult Chinook and steelhead because there are no functioning fish ladders at the dams.
Additionally, juvenile migratory fish swimming downstream cannot pass through the huge manmade reservoirs without being sucked into the gigantic hydroelectric turbines.
The dams on the Willamette were originally built to hold back the floodwaters in Oregon’s most densely populated valley, as well as the state’s largest city, Portland. But they generate less than 1% of the Northwest’s power, barely enough to serve about 100,000 homes.
According to ProPublica, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers promised to make the hydroelectric dams on Oregon’s Willamette River safe for endangered salmon. To this end, they constructed enormous mechanical traps, each the size of a football field, to catch juvenile fish. These juvenile fish are sucked into tanker trucks and transported overland, then returned to the river downstream of the dam. The Corps claimed this would be a sustainable way to “save the salmon.”
Bu the plan was resoundingly criticized by anglers, conservation groups, and customers of the power plant who called it “costly” and “untested.” Critics point out that the Corps’ Willamette River power generation is projected to lose some $700 million over the next three decades. And a scientific study found that that the changes recommended by the Corps will not prevent the extinction of threatened salmon, as promised.
Even the hydroelectric corporations admit that the hydropower turbines on the Willamette River dams are not as profitable as those on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Bringing electricity from the Willamette dams to Willamette Valley homes will cost about five times as much as it does to bring hydroelectricity from dams on the Northwest’s larger rivers to nearby residences.
On January 4, 2025, President Biden put the kibosh on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Willamette River operations, ordering them to stop using nine of the thirteen dams for the generation of electricity. Now the Corps has to shelve its designs for mechanical fish collectors – enormous floating vacuums that cost as much as $450 million apiece. Meanwhile, the Corps will have to figure out how operate the network of dams without generating hydropower.
Some of the local tribes support these changes. “There’s a very real, very viable solution, and we need to proceed with that as soon as possible,” said Kathleen George, a council member for the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. She added, “Our salmon heritage is literally on the line.”
Once the reservoirs are drained, wild migratory native fish will be able to pass through the river channel as they did before the Willamette River was dammed in 1894. Some argue that there will be less water for irrigation and recreational boating. Others observe that draining the reservoirs will create greater capacity for flood control. The upside of this development is that they’re one step closer to draining the reservoirs behind the dams and returning the river level to that of a free-flowing undammed river.
