National conservation group backs removal of Willamette River low-head dam

Sarah Dyrdahl has long paddled the Willamette River — inevitably passing by the dangerous underwater dam with a hydraulic force so strong, it traps those floating over it. 

“Every single time I pass it, it infuriates me more,” said Dyrdahl, who took another run on the river last fall.

As she approached the Interstate 5 bridge between Eugene and Springfield, she knew from her experience she was nearing the dam. She also knew there would be a handmade sign directing people to a bypass channel to right of the concrete blocks, as they floated downstream. But the bright red paint on the sign had faded. 

“You couldn’t really see [the sign] until you were right on the dam. It’s really concerning,” said Dyrdahl. “I think about all the students who are going to the drugstore and picking up an inflatable inner tube, and they don’t know.”

Dyrdahl is not only a water lover, calling Eugene home for the last decade; she is also the Northwest regional director of American Rivers. And now, Dyrdahl is bringing her organization’s expertise of removing dams and restoring river habitats to the city of Eugene as it conducts a feasibility study about safety and the dam.

“We have pushed for dam removal as one of the alternatives to evaluate, because we think it could have tremendous community benefit,” she said. 

The term “alternatives” is standard planning phrase as a feasibility study evaluates multiple possible courses of action — for example, leaving the dam in place, repairing it, modifying it or removing it entirely. 

Some cities, including Bend, have transformed aging and potentially risky river areas into recreational assets by redesigning waterways to create controlled whitewater features. The Eugene Public Works Department is not considering a water park as an option in the study.

“That is not part of our scope,” said public works spokesperson Marion Suitor in an email. “The focus of the feasibility study is on safety, not recreation.” 

The feasibility study launched this year under a $50,000 budget. In June, engineering contractors sailed a small survey boat through the dam, navigating it with a handheld controller from the shoreline. They measured the elevation of the riverbed, capturing data for models that evaluate how water flow changes — both upstream and downstream — if the dam is altered or removed.

Meanwhile, this year, Willamalane Park and Recreation District posted official warning signs at three put-in locations about the dam and “high risk of drowning.” However, the sign does not represent an acceptance of responsibility for the low-head dam. The same goes for the city of Eugene and its feasibility study. 

There is no existing deed or ownership documentation, according to Suitor, for the abandoned relic of a bygone utility era. It once belonged to a power company that dissolved decades ago. 

And so who will decide the outcome of the feasibility study is yet to be seen. It is scheduled to be issued as a report later this year.

If the low-head dam is removed, it would be a first for Eugene. Suitor said the Public Works Department is “grateful” for American Rivers coming in as a partner, providing resources and technical review.

American Rivers estimates that nearly 13,500 low-head dams — typically less than 25 feet high — result in 50 deaths each year in the United States. The organization has a dam removal network, which features case studies of how cities have approached these river hazards in their backyards. 

“Dam removals tend to be very similar,” Dyrdahl said. “They are all different scenarios, but they are typically, when we do a dam removal, it’s usually the same process every time of convening a project team with the technical expertise and the decision-making space to be able to get the project through the alternatives analysis and design, and then implementation.” 

For years, local groups and advocates have pressed government agencies to do something about the low-head dam. But Dyrdahl said last summer was a turning point.

Lookout Eugene-Springfield published a series of articles documenting the challenges: worsening turbulence caused by the eroding dam and hotter summers drawing more swimmers to the river. 

Then two sisters came forward with their story of being trapped in the dam’s hydraulic force for nearly 15 minutes. They were among the five rescue calls to the site that Eugene Springfield Fire responded to that summer, accounting for about 10% of the roughly 50 water rescues the agency responds to each year. 

Dyrdahl was following the coverage. 

“So I read that, and I was like, I can’t work for American Rivers and have a drowning machine take a life in my community,” she said. “I can’t stand by idly while this continues to be presented as an unsolvable problem.”