Don't condemn local dams to California fate

Whew!

Last week, when the Statesman Journal reported that the Oregon Water Resources Department considers seven dams in Oregon to be in "unsatisfactory" condition, none were located in the Mid-Valley.

The feds, not the state, through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, oversee Detroit Lake in Linn County, which supplies Salem's drinking water. It was classified as a "high hazard dam," which means that if the dam fails, it could result in one or more human deaths and cause property and environmental damage.

The news came after disaster hit the Lake Oroville Dam in Northern California and forced the temporary evacuation of nearly 200,000 people in the path of a possible dam breach and uncontrolled flooding. Thankfully, the dam didn't fail, as earth eroded  around spillways used to reduce the water that had filled the dam to 100-percent capacity.

Are those of us who live downstream from Detroit Lake relieved? Yes. Does that mean we can put flooding out of our minds? No.

That's because there are more than 15,000 bodies of water in Oregon that are called dams because they are 10 feet or higher and contain nearly 3 million gallons of water. The state only regulates about 900 of them. The rest are owned by farmers, irrigation and water districts, cities and counties.

Oregon has one of the nation’s strongest oversight programs of public dams, but we must be diligent in ensuring that private owners are inspecting and maintaining these smaller dams.

How many in the community remember when the Parkersville Dam in Keizer flooded the Country Glen and Hidden Creek areas in 1996 and 1997?

Or that drainage capacity and a bypass channel had to be added to Labish Creek, which travels west from near Volcanoes Stadium to Country Glen Park, to help contain rising waters?

More than 10,000 evacuated in Keizer due to flood risk in 1996

Others, like the Keizer Dike, an earthen dike constructed along the east bank of the Willamette River after a 1964 flood, continue to protect the city of Keizer during high-water events. It held back rising waters in 1996, but more than 10,000 people still had to be evacuated.

These smaller dams are the ones  that aren't getting attention, but our locals officials need to be watching, inspecting and monitoring them. Residents must demand that their emergency plans are in order and that their inspections are up to date.

Evacuating 10,000 residents pales in comparison to attempting to move out 200,000, which is what was witnessed last week in California. That exodus created gridlock and panic.

In many areas, these smaller dams are part of an aging infrastructure, much like bridges. We know that the city and county have worked to replace or shore up these engineering marvels.

But we also know deferred maintenance is a part of the public-works lexicon, and some of these small dams are probably nearing, or have surpassed, their life expectancy. If they need to be replaced, planning and budgeting will be required.

Perhaps it's time to bring back the Works Projects Administration of the 1930s, which had millions of unemployed people carry out public works projects. Almost all of us can point to a park, bridge, stairway, bridge or school constructed by the WPA.

Our smaller dams might be a good place to start this effort.

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