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QuickTake:
A full removal of the Millrace Low Head Dam would cost about $4.8 million, city staff and partners said at a packed open house. But no agency owns the dam, and there’s no funding yet.
If crews get the money to dismantle a dangerous dam in the Willamette River between Eugene and Springfield, they’ll first have to build another dam.
This one at least would be temporary, unlike the Millrace Low Head Dam itself. That nearly century-old dam from a bygone era of energy infrastructure lurks below the surface, and for years it has trapped kayakers and floaters passing through. Dams like this are often called “drowning machines” because of their powerful recirculating currents that swirl like a washing machine.
City of Eugene staff and partners hosted an open house Monday, Nov. 9, in a packed room in the downtown library and presented recommendations to remove the concrete portion of the dam that runs parallel to the Interstate 5 Bridge.
To remove the dam, crews would install a temporary dam that Nick Robertson, a structural engineer with the planning firm Dowl, described as a “big rubber tube.” The temporary dam would hold back the water and create a dry work area, allowing crews to bring heavy equipment and break up the concrete. The tools for that job are a hydraulic hammer and excavator that would take the pieces of concrete out of the river, said Melanie Klym, Northwest river restoration director with American Rivers.
The city of Eugene contracted Dowl earlier this year, paying for its expertise in part with a $50,000 budget. American Rivers, a national nonprofit focused on restoration and dam removal, joined the project in July.
Robertson and Klym went over two similar recommendations with one difference: whether to remove a rock weir, a heap of brush and rock that looks natural but is part of the dam. Those two recommendations:
- Full removal of both the concrete dam and the rock weir, estimated at $4.8 million. (This is their preferred option.)
- Removal of only the concrete dam, estimated at $4.7 million.
The final report will be released in early January, said Rachael Vaicunas, a principal civil engineer with Eugene Public Works. From there, the work turns to finding money, possibly through grants.
As people moved around the open house Monday, Vaicunas heard a familiar suggestion: turn the low-head dam into a recreational feature, like Bend’s whitewater park, but the ultimate goal, she said, is public safety.
“Financally, this (removal) will be a lot quicker and easier, and so we just need to figure out the funding, who’s going to take the lead, and then just get it done,” Vaicunas said.
The Eugene Public Works department commissioned the feasibility study, but the city has not taken jurisdictional responsibility, and neither has any other agency. The city launched the study in part because of Eugene Springfield Fire emergency calls, according to public works spokesperson Marion Suitor. The city did not have numbers of emergency calls or near-drownings at the site over the past several years available Monday night.
Lookout Eugene-Springfield has previously reported that in 2025 the fire department responded to five rescues at the low-head dam between June 1 and mid-August, about 10% of the roughly 50 water rescue calls the agency handles each year.
The lack of a single jurisdiction accountable for the dam and the long road to funding worried some in the room. Until the dam comes out of the river, the risks will continue, Springfield resident Mike McFarlane said.
McFarlane has spent nearly eight years advocating for safety at the dam and has recently formed a nonprofit, Millrace Dam Authority, that continues to push for a government agency to accept ownership of the structure. He also thinks about the timeline, and another season of people getting in the water before dam removal.
“But the next Memorial Day, they’ll be out there again,” said McFarlane. “This [study] is literally the first step of many.”
He worries that construction could be as long as five years away, considering permitting with multiple government agencies. McFarlane and others, some part of a board connected with the new nonprofit, left the open house Monday night to speak at the Eugene City Council to formally enter their concerns as public comment.
At the library, city staff did not provide a timeline, but city staff and their partners expressed commitment to moving the project forward. They estimate once crews are on site, removal would take about five months.
“It feels like it’s on the right trajectory,” said Sarah Drydahl, Northwest regional director of American Rivers. “And that we’re going to actually be able to do something about this.”
