"Repairing" Winchester Dam, August 2023
On August 14, 2023, during Ryan Beckley’s “repairs” of the condemned and uninsurable Winchester Dam, Aiden M. Scott, age 23, an employee of Guido Construction, the cement subcontractor on the job site, fell 15-feet and broke his back.
But Beckley and his contractors failed to report this serious injury, violating Oregon Administrative Rule 437-001-0704(1)(b), which legally requires reporting to Oregon OSHA within 24 hours. When employers fail to act after a known injury and continue to expose workers to the same hazards, OSHA may classify this as a willful violation, the most egregious level of negligence.
Oregon OSHA requires employers to report all “in-patient hospitalization, loss of an eye, and either an amputation or avulsion that results in bone loss within 24 hours of when it happened or when it was reported to you or your agents.”
But neither Winchester Water Control District Board President Ryan Beckley nor his contractors reported Scott’s job site broken back injury—which required in-patient hospitalization—to Oregon OSHA as required by law.
According to Brandon Lyda, a Records Request Fulfillment Specialist at Oregon OSHA, “There is no accident report for an Aiden Scott, nor any accidents reported for either company to OSHA in 2023.”
Apparently, Guido Construction, TerraFirma, and the Winchester Water Control District may well have broken the law by failing to report Scott’s workplace injury.
One witnesss, who wishes to remain anonymous, claimed to have worked on the August 2023 “repairs” of Winchester Dam, and stated that Scott’s injury was caused by a missing (or improperly installed) bolt in the scaffolding or railing. He asserts that Ryan Beckley blamed Oregon Fish and Wildlife for this “mistake.” Although this report is unconfirmed, it is consistent with the culture of fear and falsehoods that Beckley perpetuates.
Thirteen months after his injury, Scott filed a lawsuit in Multnomah Civil Court on September 19, 2024, against the Winchester Water Control District, Beckley’s TerraFirma Foundation Systems, and the State of Oregon.
By having delayed taking legal action until well after the six-month statute of limitations elapsed, Scott likely saved his employers thousands of dollars in Winchester Dam reconstruction delays, investigation fees, and penalties.
According to Oregon OSHA, “Young workers, ages 14 to 25, face a greater risk of injury and death in the workplace. Youth in the workplace generally have less job experience, do not receive proper job training, and might be hesitant to ask questions about safety.”
OSHA recognizes that the problem of employers failing to report workplace injuries can be more prevalent when young workers are injured. Consequently, Oregon OSHA has a special division that investigates injuries to workers 14 – 25-years-old who have received less training and are more easily influenced by their employer to remain silent about workplace injuries.
Unrelated to Scott’s fall, Oregon OSHA investigated a Winchester Dam reconstruction workplace complaint on August 31, 2023 (two weeks after Scott’s fall) and issued three citations for the following issues:
1. Employees using ladders in ways not designed for.
2. Several employees were exposed to falls greater than six feet without fall protection.
3. Employee observed working while standing on dam frame without fall protection.
It is worth noting OSHA’s complaint form for employees working without fall protection was issued two weeks after Scott fell 15-feet and broke his back. OSHA specifically cited Ryan Beckley, President of the Winchester Water Control District, and owner of TerraFirma Foundation Systems, who was listed as the site manager.
Beckley took no action to protect his other employees after Scott was seriously injured on the job site. Some say this is an example of Beckley’s questionable judgement.
Scott’s family’s social media crowd-funding page, which has raised $1,615.00, lists the names of the donors. But the names of Guido or Beckley do not appear on the list of donors, nor do any other members of Winchester Water Control District leadership—the privileged few who benefitted most from not reporting Scott’s broken back during repairs of a condemned and uninsurable dam whose only function is as a private water ski lake.
Predictably, Patrick Markham, owner of the Roseburg News-Review newspaper, made sure his paper did not report on Scott’s injury.
By apparently failing to ensure safe working conditions for his employees, Beckley incurred yet another lawsuit, and with it the hundreds of thousands of dollars it will cost.
Regardless of how the judge rules, the 100 homeowners in the Winchester Water Control District (WWCD) have to pick up the tab for attorney Dominic Carollo’s sizeable invoices—which only grow larger as this lawsuit (and the others suits in which Beckley and the WWCD are now embroiled) move through the courts.
Scott’s litigation is merely one of half a dozen lawsuits in which Beckley finds himself a plaintiff or defendant.
This is the price of highly questionable decision making and an absence of best practices.
Like awarding the contract to repair the 135-year-old derelict Winchester Dam to—not a reputable dam repair firm—but rather to the President of the Winchester Water Control District himself, Ryan Beckley, who, according to Jim McCarthy of Oregon WaterWatch, “has never repaired a dam [before] in his life.”
The elected leadership of the Winchester Water Control District has largely gone unchanged for decades. Many feel that the 100 WWCD homeowners have no one to blame but themselves for the outrageous and ever-increasing legal fees incurred by their rogue, but nevertheless elected, board of directors (of which Ryan Beckley is the President).
Readers will remember Beckley as Oregon Fish and Wildlife’s Fish Kill Champion of 2023 for his apparent singlehanded slaughter of some seven generations—more than 550,000 individual wild migratory native Pacific lamprey during his “repairs” of Winchester Dam in August 2023.
One is left with the impression that Beckley is less concerned with safety than he is with shortcuts, as is evidenced by the many lawsuits that clutter his calendar with literally years of depositions, hearings, and courtroom drama.
As you pass Winchester Dam on your way in and out of Roseburg on a summer’s day, take note of the speedboats and water skiers on the mile and a half long private water ski lake—for the dam has no other function, no hydroelectricity, no irrigation, and no flood control.
It’s there solely for the recreation of the few at the exclusion of the many.
