At 8:30 AM, Tuesday, September 24, 2024, the Oregon Senate Interim Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire will meet at the state capital in Salem. An update on the Winchester Dam is on the agenda. The committee is chaired by Oregon Senator Jeff Golden.
The following individuals have been invited to report to the Oregon Senate Interim Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire at this hearing:
Shaun Clements, Deputy Director, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Ivan Gall, Director, Oregon Water Resources Department
Rian van den Hooff, Senior Policy and Legislative Analyst, Water Quality, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
Becky McRae, President, The North Umpqua Foundation
Jim McCarthy, Southern Oregon Program Director, WaterWatch
Also invited to address the committee is Ryan Beckley, president of the Winchester Water Control District and owner of TerraFirma Foundation Systems. Beckley was in charge of the botched repairs at Winchester Dam last August, which resulted in the permit violations that are the basis of a $27.5 million lawsuit brought by the Oregon Department of Justice.
The public is invited to attend the September 24 hearing at the state capital. Written questions may be submitted to the committee. The hearing will be broadcast live, which allows the public to attend virtually via the internet.
When the Oregon Senate Interim Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire last discussed the Winchester Dam at their September 27, 2023, meeting, State Senator Floyd Prozanski, a Democrat who spent 18 years as District Four’s Member of Congress in the Oregon House of Representatives, was profuse in his criticisms of the damage caused by the August 2023 repairs of the Winchester Dam.
“We now have a fish kill. We have DEQ [Department of Environmental Quality] violations that have been established…” said Prozanski. “I understand you’ve still got the report to put together but I’m hoping that you’re going to give us a date and time … as to when this is going to be there so we can actually hold those accountable who have not done the work they should have done, and actually made the repairs they should have done years ago. I mean, after representing this area for 18 years and having people coming to me, and me trying to be a facilitator with the state agencies, and getting nothing out of it. I’m very concerned with how this is done. … Transparency is one thing; action is another thing.”
Eleven months later, perhaps agency representatives will finally be able to answer Senator Prozanski’s questions.
