Our Doomed Dam

By Nate Wilson

Nadine and Neil Scott said their vows on a cramped wooden dock with Douglas fir crested mountains and glasslike water behind them. A quaint backyard ceremony in July 1980, around 75 family and friends watched as the Scotts embraced. Soon afterward, Nadine’s new mother-in-law ushered the couple onto a boat. 

They set off on Leaburg Lake, letting the McKenzie River’s current guide them downriver until they approached three concrete pillars and the massive, 100-foot-long roll gates of Leaburg Dam. 

The Scott’s marriage has lasted. The century-old dam — and the beloved lake it holds — will soon vanish.  

“Our kids were out there every day of their lives,” said Nadine, now 72 and a mother of two. “When I get home from work, the first thing I do is head to my boat.”  

Below Leaburg Dam, roaring, tumbling white water sprays mist high and far. Above the dam, the McKenzie River barely even ripples, smoothly flowing into the dam’s all-consuming spillway. That dichotomy between a gushing, powerful river and a still, silent river is ending not just in Leaburg, Oregon, but across the American West. 

As dams fall, or have already fallen, on the Klamath, Elwha and Rogue Rivers, it’s a reminder that altering the natural environment comes with benefits and costs. Dams change rivers, but they also change communities. The town of Leaburg and Leaburg Dam have been intertwined in more ways than one for generations. 

For the next eight years, Leaburg will be in limbo as the eccentric lakeside community reimagines its relationship with the McKenzie River while residents — some adamantly opposed to dam removal while others strongly in favor — move forward. Leaburg serves as a microcosm of the conflict over dam removal, and the uncertainty and opportunity that comes with unleashing rivers.  

The Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) expects to start decommissioning Leaburg Dam in 2032. Over the next five years, the utility will conduct studies to understand the effects of dam removal: hydrologic changes, impacts on aquatic species, and water rights, among others. Study results, along with feedback from stakeholders and the public will shape EWEB’s removal proposal, which it plans to submit to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 2029. 

With dam removal looming, what does this mean for the people who love and live on Leaburg Lake, and for the McKenzie’s ecosystems?

Highway 126 traces the river’s route and connects Leaburg, about 22 miles east of Eugene, with eight other unincorporated towns in the McKenzie River Valley. Turn off the winding highway onto Leaburg Dam Road and you’ll reach the McKenzie’s South Bank. To the left, there sits Leaburg Lake: Its surface tranquil and its waters still, the lake bustles with activity.  

On the South Bank, anglers cast their lines and some yell “I got one!” each time they reel in a fish. Others inflate rubber kayaks, launch peddle boats, or little metal dinghies. In Lloyd Knox Park, next to the dam and named after one of its longtime managers, families barbecue by picnic tables in alcoves shaded by towering conifers and bigleaf maples.

Continuing east on Leaburg Dam Road past Lloyd Knox Park, about a dozen homes overlook Leaburg Lake. With a treehouse and a bursting pink rhododendron bordering her driveway, the Scott’s house, where Nadine and Neil married, is easy to identify. Further along, a white picket fence marks the home of Linda Williams, who enjoys sharing her lake view with others. 

“When people come over to my house, I like watching their expressions,” said Linda. “They go to the living room window like a magnet, look left and right, and say ‘Wow, this is paradise.’”

Without Leaburg Lake, South Bank residents worry about their property values decreasing and local businesses fret over a potential lack of customers. For more than three decades, Betty Koehler has owned Ike’s Pizza, a restaurant adorned with University of Oregon gear offering views of Leaburg Lake from its sunbaked patio. Betty expressed frustration with EWEB, resigned that a decline in business may come. 

“We tried to protest, and it didn’t work. We have no say,” said Betty. “We have no say.” 

Jon Payne owns Leaburg Store, which sells gasoline and groceries a few miles downriver. Jon hopes that other potential attractions, like a whitewater rafting park or an expanded trail system, could still bring tourists to the Leaburg Lake area. But as one EWEB employee told him, the utility “isn’t in the recreation business,” even though it owns Lloyd Knox Park. 

Leaburg Dam is also the only way to access South Bank homes. Moreover, the dam feeds water into the Leaburg and McKenzie Fish Hatcheries, which lure visitors and help keep the river stocked with fish. 

Frank Lawson, the general manager of EWEB, said two main options exist for bridge replacement: Build a new bridge at Leaburg Dam once it's removed, or retrofit the old Goodpasture Covered Bridge upriver and connect it to Leaburg Dam Road. This route would require plowing through a hill and about a quarter mile of private forest.

“We’ll do various studies to help the county prepare, but the county is responsible for transportation — the design, planning, and execution of it,” Lawson said. Oregon’s Department of Transportation would also be involved.

As for the hatcheries, Lawson said the decision to install water pumps, relocate or discontinue their operations is one for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns both hatcheries. Like the value of South Bank homes, the fate of local businesses, and bridge replacement, only time will tell what happens.

EWEB’s decision to remove Leaburg Dam comes amidst a wave of dam removals, regionally and nationally. Due to growing environmental pressure and the reality of aging infrastructure, dam removal has been increasing annually in the U.S. since the 1980s. According to conservation group American Rivers, of 57 removals in 2021, Oregon led the nation with seven.  

In 2011 and 2014, the Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula fell, marking the largest dam removal project in U.S. history; once four dams come down in the Klamath Basin this year, that title will find a new owner. The Pacific Northwest is no stranger to reuniting rivers, no matter the scale or complexity.  

Despite this trend, many South Bank residents remain steadfastly against removing Leaburg Dam. Nadine and Linda, along with other community members, formed a group called Save Leaburg Lake in 2022 to prevent, and now delay, EWEB from taking their dam away.  

“You’re tearing down the dam? I don’t think so,” said Linda. “They don’t care — they don’t live in the area. Just continue with whatever it is that you do, EWEB. Collect your paychecks but leave our dam.” 

Initially, the group began by petitioning and speaking out at EWEB’s public meetings, but now they’re shifting tactics: taking the utility to court. According to Nadine, Save Leaburg Lake has been searching for an attorney to drown EWEB in legal procedures but is struggling to raise enough money. 

Upriver in the community of Vida, Bob Spencer, a fishing guide and president of the McKenzie Watershed Collective, takes a stance in stark opposition to Save Leaburg Lake’s efforts. “The purported loss to homeowners and their views carries no relationship to the value of restoring this river to its natural flow,” Bob said.  

He established Spencer Outfitters in 1989 and has taken people fly fishing exclusively on the McKenzie ever since. The opportunity to float through old-growth forests and catch 30 to 40 fish per day, what Bob calls a “world-class experience,” attracts enthusiasts from New York City to Los Angeles. 

While removing Leaburg Dam may bring fewer people to Leaburg, Bob noted how guiding businesses up and down the McKenzie are in jeopardy, just like the threatened Chinook salmon, which also benefits the local economy. When the dam comes down, fly fishers will have a new free-flowing section of the McKenzie to fish, but Bob remains focused on the river’s health. 

“We’re scared to death that the salmon run will go extinct,” said Bob. “The forest, the riparian areas, and the river — it’s all one organism, it’s one system. You can’t affect one part of the system without affecting the entire thing.” Among fishing guides, there’s little love for EWEB or Leaburg Dam.

Walking across Leaburg Dam creates an unsettling feeling — it’s stable and sturdy but will soon be gone. It’s hard not to think about all the lives this dam has supported over the decades. It’s hard not to think about how long moss crept up the dam’s pillars, once tan now partially blackened, and what the dam’s bridge arches looked like before they rusted.

Walking across Leaburg Dam creates an unsettling feeling — it’s stable and sturdy but will soon be gone. It’s hard not to think about all the lives this dam has supported over the decades. It’s hard not to think about how long moss crept up the dam’s pillars, once tan now partially blackened, and what the dam’s bridge arches looked like before they rusted.  

According to Lawson, the cost of removing Leaburg Dam, the powerhouse, and restoring Leaburg Canal to manage stormwater is around $184.6 million. EWEB plans to raise the price of its electricity by eight percent in the next three to four years to fund removal, and to buy additional electricity from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). The Columbia River dams operated by BPA already supply about seventy percent of EWEB’s energy needs at less than half the cost of electricity generated at the now-decommissioned Leaburg Powerhouse. 

South Bank residents, though, don’t care about cheaper electricity bills. They want to enjoy the safe, sentimental refuge Leaburg Lake provides and protect it for themselves, visitors, and children. “I don’t think, honestly, that I’m going to change [EWEB’s] decision in my lifetime,” Nadine said. “But I’m hoping, if we tie it up in court, that my grandkids would still have the lake — that’s my goal.” 

“What do I get out of the lake? Just the pleasure of it,” said Linda, reflecting on how she watched swallows flip and twist over the water. “I’ve never seen something so picturesque. It’s just, it’s just spectacular.”  

In many ways, Leaburg Lake defines Leaburg itself — it inspires people to gather, puts the McKenzie River Valley on full display, supports local businesses, and generally enables the community to function. For decades, cars have crossed Leaburg Dam and families have enjoyed lakeside Lloyd Knox Park or watched fish mature at Leaburg Hatchery. The dam serves many purposes, and while it hasn’t generated electricity for many years, power production was never the most important for the people of Leaburg.  

Leaburg Dam fundamentally altered the McKenzie. Out of grit and resilience, the river remains alive and will soon run free. Like the McKenzie, Leaburg will adapt.