September 4, 2002

The Honorable Gordon H. Smith
World Trade Center
121 S.W. Salmon Street, Suite 1250
Portland, OR 97204

Re:  Elk Creek Dam

Dear Senator Smith:

The Oregon Chapter of Republicans for Environmental Protection (REPAmerica) respectfully requests that you support the temporary notching of Elk Creek dam as a means of restoring fish passage to Elk Creek's valuable salmon and steelhead runs.

Elk Creek dam is an example of how a federal agency can create waste and inefficiency: waste in that a valuable natural resource (fish production) is needlessly damaged, and inefficiency in that the trap and haul alternative is less effective and more costly than the notching proposal.

The Oregon Chapter of REP would be proud to see our Republican senator approaching this highly politicized, difficult issue with a firm commitment to both fiscal conservatism and balanced environmental protection. We hope that you will consider the following points:

• In a 1994 study, the Army Corps of Engineers estimated that the cost of completing construction of Elk Creek Dam would be $68 million.
• The dam is not necessary for the water storage and flood prevention purposes for which the project was originally authorized in 1962. Subsequent construction of Lost Creek Reservoir and Applegate Reservoir has addressed these two needs.
• Nearby Lost Creek Reservoir contains 40,000 acre feet (89% of its total storage space) of un-contracted-for water that is available to meet the future needs of agricultural users in the upper Rogue basin. Applegate reservoir has a similar amount.
• The Army Corps has indicated that they have no plans to complete Elk Creek Dam. The Army Corps has not even applied to the State of Oregon for a water right for the project. Nor have they applied for other state permits.
• Continuing costs of the trap and haul facility have already far outstripped the one-time cost of notching. In recent years, the Army Corps has received $500,000 annually for "caretaker activities" at the dam.
  The current trap and haul facility--due to its physical limitations-is less effective at passing fish than is notching the dam.
• The Army Corps of Engineers has indicated that notching does not preclude eventual completion of Elk Creek Dam.
• Oregon and the federal government spend millions of dollars annually to fund hatchery production of fish and to restore habitat to wild fish. Notching Elk Creek Dam would provide a relatively inexpensive means of restoring approximately 44% of upper Rogue River coho salmon spawning habitat.

Given these facts, we believe that the notching of Elk Creek Dam provides an opportunity for our Republican party to assert its claim to leadership on projects representing sound, conservative natural resource management. By notching Elk Creek Dam, we can nearly double natural production of upper Rogue coho salmon, and we can do this in a way that saves money.

The Endangered Species Act has inspired division and distrust in this state for more than a decade. The notching of Elk Creek Dam could help lift the burden of costly habitat restoration off of the shoulders of private individuals and place it where it is most logically and efficiently born: on the shoulders of a federal project that needlessly destroyed what can now be so easily restored.

Thank you for your attention to this issue.

Yours truly,

Aubrey Russell, President
Oregon Chapter, REPAmerica

cc: Eric Schlecht, National Taxpayers Union
Jill Lancelot, Taxpayers for Common Sense
Gus Rassam, American Fisheries Society

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