$60 Million Proposed for Big Creek Dam Project | News

Approval by the US Congress could bring the Big Creek Dam replacement project in Newport close to full funding.

Newport’s twin earthen dams on the Big Creek Reservoir, which hold the city’s only water source, are a hazard with no easy remedy for a small municipality. A relatively minor earthquake – 3.5 or greater – might be enough to cause pre-seismic standards building to fail, inundate homes below in less than a minute, breach Highway 101 to the west and paralyze Newport’s water supply for a year or more.

Mayor Dean Sawyer said the seismic weakness was first discovered in 2011 during work on the flow to a water treatment plant. Then, a few years ago, a government inspection discovered signs of potential internal erosion, which could lead to similar collapse and deadly flooding without the need for an earthquake. The Oregon Department of Water Resources deemed the upper dam unsafe and required the city to take steps to mitigate the risks, including limiting the use of the downstream stream.

“If the dam fails, we can call FEMA, but they can only bring in bottled water,” Sawyer said. You cannot shower with bottled water. You cannot operate a fish factory with bottled water. It didn’t take long for the city to evaporate. People will leave.”

Newport has already spent nearly $4 million evaluating and designing an alternative, but at a cost of $60 to $80 million, or more—the estimate goes up by $3 million each year—the levees have been replaced with a single, taller concrete structure. of access to the city’s tax base to fund it through the bond scale.

And when a local delegation including Sawyer visited Washington, D.C. in November 2019 to seek help from the US government, they learned there was no money in the federal budget for such projects, Sawyer said—Big Creek dams are “private” and outside the scope of the US Army Corps of Engineers.

With the help of Chancellor Dig Deep Research, the city launched the “Save Our Supply” campaign, producing publications and videos detailing the impact of the dam failure on life, property and the local economy, and taking state and federal lawmakers on tours of the dam and its seepage (on which the city has spent 200,000 dollars last October for emergency repairs).

David Gomberg, the state representative, whose 10th district includes Lincoln County, is an outspoken advocate of the replacement project, and helped secure $14 million for it from the Oregon legislature last year. This will lead to the final design of the city and possibly some initial construction activities

The city’s federal lobbying effort appears to have paid off. In the draft 2022 Water Development Act, which has been reauthorized every two years since 2014 and passed the Home Transportation and Infrastructure Commission last week, there is a provision that reads, “$60,000,000 for water and sanitation infrastructure, including water supply, in Newport Oregon.”

Rep. Kurt Schrader, whose fifth district in the U.S. House of Representatives includes Lincoln County prior to the redistricting, has written to the committee to support funding for the project. Schrader toured the dam with city officials in November 2020.

“Failure of this dam would be devastating for several reasons: loss of life, impact on the local economy, loss of critical water supply, to name a few,” Schrader said. Without this dam, 10,000 residents throughout the year and nearly 2.5 million tourists would be without water for at least a year. The economic cost could rise to nearly $2 billion if left unaddressed for five years.”

Sawyer said they also had support from Representative Peter DeFazio, the committee’s chair, helping to get the bill into the bill now on its way to the entire House floor.

The mayor said he understands the House could vote on the bill as early as June, and the Senate could then be passed by the end of the year, when he expects Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley to help push it. The Senate version of the Water Development Act, which the Environment and Public Works Committee approved earlier this month, does not include the Big Creek Dam clause.

A spokesman for Wyden’s office said the senator supports including the $60 million dam in final legislation.

“The threat to Oregonians living and working on the coast as well as visitors to this popular tourist area from the Big Creek Dam earthquake requires urgent attention,” Wyden said in an emailed statement. “I strongly support this federal investment to protect lives, small businesses, and safe drinking water for the community. I will look for every opportunity to secure this vital funding.”

Merkley’s office responded before the paper’s print deadline, but the senator visited the dam last August and expressed support for finding federal help.

The project will lose two key defenders in the lower room in 2023, as DeFazio (who would also have become Lincoln County’s representative with its absorption into District 4) will retire, and Schrader appears to have lost the primary challenge in redrawn District 5 to Jimmy MacLeod Skinner.

As costs continue to rise, Sawyer said, the city will likely need to ask the state legislature for more money even with $60 million in federal appropriations.

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