Maupin Mayor, Business Owners Call on Oregon Legislature, Governor to Act
A River Runs Through It: Maupin with its life-blood flowing front and center.
Costs of PGE’s Selective Water Withdrawal Tower Failures Run into Downstream Communities, Economy
On Monday, January 13th, the Mayor of Maupin, Carol Beatty, alongside local business owners John and Amy Hazel, and Rob and Susie Miles, called on Oregon’s upcoming session of the Legislature and Governor Tina Kotek to address ongoing water quality issues on the lower Deschutes River.
“My husband and I have been rafting the Deschutes for 30 years,” says Maupin Mayor Carol Beatty. “We see more algae and fewer fish. Maupin is a charming community, full of kind and caring people. Part of what makes that so is the river. It means jobs for guides, and they bring their clients. It means tourists who don’t fish or raft, but just want to hike or camp along the river. It means all kinds of jobs for high school and college students in the summer. They all bring so much to our town. The dams are damaging our river. I don’t know how you get around that. The state of Oregon can help by resolving those issues with the dams. I’m calling on Gov. Kotek’s office to push state agencies to fix this problem.”
More than any other city in Oregon, Maupin is dependent on the river that runs through it. Yet for 15 years, since Portland General Electric’s Pelton-Round Butte Dam complex underwent operational changes aimed at improving water quality and restoring fish passage, river-dependent economies have faltered. PGE’s $110 million Selective Water Withdrawal Tower, which allows mixing water from different depths in Lake Billy Chinook, was built to better the river’s ecology. But instead, years of water quality data show the river is less healthy. The downturn in the river’s once-pristine waters affects the well-being of Maupin and the surrounding community. River-based recreation on Oregon’s most popular whitewater rafting river, as well as one of the West’s most acclaimed fishing destinations, is vital to Maupin’s small-town economy as well as that of central Oregon and beyond. “Laws put into place to protect the river and the fish should be enforced,” says Amy Hazel, co-owner of The Deschutes Angler. “Unfortunately, the agencies that exist to protect the river and the fish are siding with the private, for-profit utility.”
“I’ve watched this river for all of my 40-plus years as a guide and shop owner,” says John Hazel, long-tenured Deschutes guide and co-owner of Deschutes Angler. “It’s hurting. And because it’s hurting, the city of Maupin and the surrounding communities are also hurting. We need the state of Oregon to act–to enforce existing water quality laws and bring this river back to what it was meant to be–one of the best fishing and recreational rivers in the country.”
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