Welcome to Friends of Dorena Dam!

Thank you for taking the time to examine the issues surrounding the proposed hydroelectric project at Dorena Dam.

Our concern is about the environment we live in, our kids, their kids and the communities within the Cottage Grove area.

We will not, repeat not, ask for money or any form of compensation for this website! We will not sell your name to any advertiser or profit in any way by your visit to this webpage or by your opinion expressed on this website.

This is about quality of life, a way of life we need to protect and improve. It is about understanding the truth and getting the attention of our political leaders to protect our future.

“The amount of mercury… coming through the dam in one year is actually occurring in approximately 3.5 days…”

Please don’t leave this page until you have read this paragraph. We have this feeling that you might be thinking…..”Oh boy…here we go, this is going to be a bunch of words trying to lure me into some kind of ‘touchy-feelly’, ‘tree-hugging’, ’save every squirmy-stinky kind of thing that exists’….(no offense to those tree huggers and others who might be offended)…..  Well, hate to disappoint you, it’s not going to be that kind of stuff…It’s going to be about the truth as we understand it. Let’s start with a ‘whopper’ of truth, please read on…

You need to know this piece of information. Mercury is coming through Dorena Dam at a rate higher than expected by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, (ODEQ). The amount of mercury that the ODEQ says is coming through Dorena Dam in one year is actually occurring in approximately 3.5 days during average high flow events. You might want to read that last sentence again.

“…the primary question is, how much mercury is in our drinking water?”

Knowing that the water treatment plant for the city of Cottage Grove is located 5 miles downstream from this dam, the primary question is, how much mercury is in our drinking water?

Another question you could ask is, “How do you know this to be true?”

Answer: As we read through the documents describing this proposed hydroelectric project, the more we realized things were not being adequately explained. After we learned that nobody, not even the ODEQ or Army Corps of Engineers has ever sampled for mercury during high flow rates in the past 60 years of the dam’s existence, we spent our own money on water samples trying to understand the truth about mercury moving downstream. It is from these water samples we discovered the amount of mercury coming through Dorena Dam in 3.5 days is the same amount that the ODEQ estimates in one entire year.

Besides the Mercury issue, we have other water quality issues. Issues of Temperature, Sediment, (also known as Total Suspended Solids, which sounds kind-of-weird when you begin to think about it…), Turbidity, Dissolved Oxygen, etc, are just a few examples.  We cannot possibly go through all of these water quality issues but we will explain our reasons why some of these are important and how they can affect the quality of life in our community.

If you want to learn about mercury, or water quality in general, go to the link at the top of the page labeled ‘Environmental Issues‘ and we answer your questions as best we can. Note: As more information is collected, we will do our best to update the ‘Environmental Issues‘ pages as needed.

“…how do we protect the fish?”

And another issue equally important; how do we protect the fish?. What are the laws in place to protect the fish? How can we get the salmon back to our rivers and watersheds that ultimately impact our local economy? Why are the state and federal agencies not following the laws that they themselves have created, (and lobbied for in order to be passed by the state legislature)? Now this is where it gets really interesting! For more information, visit our Fish Passage page.

Again, glad you are here…… together we can get the attention of the people who are in charge to ‘play by their own rules’ and stop leaving us, the fish, our quality of life, and our community out of the picture.