For nearly seven decades, the Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua River, north of Roseburg, has provided no flood control, no electricity, and no irrigation.
Since 1969, the derelict dam’s only function has been as a private water ski lake for a few dozen wealthy, speed boat-owning residents whose homes are within the Winchester Water Control District, at the exclusion of the public.
The Winchester Water Control District is a consortium of approximately 100 homeowners whose properties surround the private water ski lake. The district members collectively pay the legal expenses for the many lawsuits in which the district now finds itself a plaintiff or defendant.
Most people in Douglas County, Oregon, are unaware that in 1976, the Oregon Water Resources Department condemned the Winchester Dam.
In 1978, the Winchester Water Control District wrote a letter to the Douglas County Commissioners asking for the taxpayers to take over the maintenance of the 136-year-old condemned Winchester Dam and the private water ski lake.
But after reading the Oregon Water Resources Department’s 1976 report condemning the dam, the head of Douglas County public works consulted the county attorney and they decided to decline the Winchester Water Control District’s offer, as ownership of the dam was considered far too great a liability for Douglas County.
In 1984, in an act that only benefitted the Winchester Water Control District property owners, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife enacted an unprecedented and novel regulation OAR 635-008-127.
This regulation is found nowhere else in Oregon and is only applicable to a solitary public boat ramp at the Winchester Dam.
This regulation privatized the access to the private water ski lake behind the condemned Winchester Dam on the very public North Umpqua River, considered the number one steelhead stream in North America, and some say, in the world.
OAR 635-008-127 makes it “unlawful to launch or retrieve power boats from North Umpqua River Ramp area, located approximately one mile upstream from the Winchester Dam and on the south side of the river.”
Ironically, in the 1970s, ownership of this particular boat ramp was transferred to the State of Oregon by L&H Lumber, for the express purpose of allowing anglers access to the river upstream.
But inexplicably, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife went out of its way, exceeding its authority, to create this law—a law that only benefits the privileged Winchester Water Control District members.
Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua River
It is the only law of its kind in the entire state of Oregon.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is mandated by state statute ORS 506.036, to protect and propagate fish and wildlife, preventing the serious depletion of any indigenous species.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife manages Oregon’s fish and wildlife resources, regulating hunting, fishing, and conservation to provide optimal economic and recreational benefits for present and future generations.
So, one wonders why a taxpayer-funded agency would take such an action on behalf of the few and at the exclusion of the many?
The area is now posted with signs prohibiting the public from using this boat ramp.
Police enforce the law if anyone trespasses.
Back in the 1980s, the Winchester Water Control District and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife were well-aware that such an exclusionary and unprecedented regulation would likely stand little chance of passage by the state legislature.
So, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife made an “end run” around the Oregon Legislature and passed OAR 635-008-127.
OAR 635-008-127, like the Winchester Dam and the Winchester Water Control District, is a relic from a bygone era when the desires of the few outweighed the needs of the many.
OAR 635-008-127 is evidence of a State Agency, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, that has been captured by the Winchester Water Control District.
But the Winchester Water Control District itself is, in fact, an illegal entity.
ORS 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.
ORS 553.020 makes it perfectly clear that “recreation” is not considered a public purpose.
Despite Winchester Water Control District’s clear and ongoing violation of ORS 553.020 the Oregon Water Resources Department—the same agency that condemned the dam 50 years ago—inexplicably allows the Winchester Water Control District to exist and refuses to enforce ORS 553.020 in this instance.
This is an example of the unequal application of the law regarding the condemned Winchester Dam.
It’s time to bring down the dam and bring back the fish and the jobs in gendered by fishing tourism.
