Leaburg Oregon

May 27, 2005
Power Struggle: Depth shifts perceptions in Leaburg

By Bob Keefer
The Register-Guard

LEABURG - In what became a minor public relations fiasco last year, the Eugene Water & Electric Board announced it would raise the level of Leaburg Lake by as much as 18 inches in coming years - a move that would inundate parts of a dozen or two expensive lakeside properties.

Raising the level of the artificial lake would be necessary, the utility said, to make up for electrical power lost to a salmon-protecting fish screen EWEB was required to build downstream.

The whole thing came about during the process of renewing the dam's 50-year operating license with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which finally ordered EWEB to raise the lake level by the full 18 inches in the interests of efficiency.

Now EWEB says it's found a better way. After spending about $250,000 to modify the roll gates at Leaburg Dam - about $100,000 of that was to attain the proposed 18-inch increase in water level - engineers noticed an old concrete beam that partially blocked the entrance to the canal that leads to the powerhouse.

No one had paid the beam too much mind when they reviewed drawings for the 1930-vintage dam and powerhouse, said Marty Douglass, EWEB's chief spokesman.

But when EWEB workers drained water from the canal last summer and examined the beam, they saw another story.

"As we were doing the design work, it really wasn't picked up on," says EWEB Director of Electrical Services Jim Wiley. "But when we dewatered it to do the work last summer, we saw it was originally installed as a gate guide."

The beam came out, increasing the flow of water through the canal.

On May 16, with the concrete beam no longer obstructing the canal, EWEB, in a trial run, raised the water at the lake not by 18 inches but in 2-inch increments up to 6 inches. At the 6-inch level, Douglass said, EWEB was using its full water allotment of 2,500 cubic feet per second for the dam - meaning it couldn't legally use more water anyway.

The utility will now petition FERC to amend its license application to allow permanently raising the lake level by between only 4 and 6 inches, Douglass said.

That's good news for homeowners on the lake, who started the Friends of Leaburg Lake Association last year to fight the EWEB proposal. At the time, tension was high and trust was low on the part of homeowners who feared their homes could be undermined by flooding around a much-larger lake.

John Bennett, the president of FOLLA, said the May 16 test resulted in only minor flooding on some properties, and put one permanent dock under water.

Yet to be determined, he pointed out, is any damage to waterfront trees and to home well and septic systems. EWEB has pledged to make good any damage caused by raising the water level.

Bennett said, however, that in the larger picture, the neighborhood's trust has largely been restored.

"There were some pretty strong feelings against EWEB in the beginning," he said. "Things have changed 100 percent."

Douglass would like to believe that is so, but he's not relaxing just yet.

EWEB is continuing to hold meetings with residents to explain what it's doing and answer specific questions about the project. (One frequent example: Will raising the lake mean correspondingly higher floodwaters during a flood? The answer is no, EWEB says, because the roll gates can be adjusted back to their previous levels during high water.)

Bennett does say it's unfortunate EWEB didn't have the full picture clear from the beginning.

"They had everybody pretty scared with the idea of 18 inches," he said.

"They got everybody's attention, let's put it that way."

Depending on the speed with which FERC processes the changed application, the lake level could be raised permanently in 2007, Douglass said.

By Bob Keefer
© The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon

Leaburg Lake, OR.