EWEB hears public comment on data centers, fish passage

Presenter: Public comments ask EWEB for transparency on data centers, and to improve fish passage at the Trail Bridge Dam. On Oct. 6, Laura Allen:

Laura Allen (Churchill Area Neighbors): My name is Laura Allen. I’m the vice chair of Churchill Area Neighbors. I’m speaking on behalf of the neighborhood association, and I’m going to read our statement on data centers to express concerns that we have heard in our neighborhood.

Churchill Area Neighbors has closely followed the recent city of Eugene land use application for a possible data center at 1830 Willow Creek Circle that lies within our neighborhood association boundaries.

We have heard concerns expressed by many people in the neighborhood regarding the potential negative impacts of a data center. Concerns include excessive energy and water usage impacts to EWEB rates, as well as potential health concerns that arise from living near a data center. 

Churchill Area Neighbors expects complete transparency from EWEB regarding your participation with any such applicant and subsequent actions.

Thank you so much for your time and your attention to this.

David Thomas (McKenzie Flyfishers, Native Fish Society): My name is David Thomas…(I’m) the conservation chair of the McKenzie Flyfishers, and the McKenzie River steward for the Native Fish Society, here to wish to raise concerns over the operation of Trail Bridge Dam as it influences the fate of several threatened fish species.

The species in question are spring Chinook salmon and bull trout. Both are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in the Willamette Basin, starting in 1999.

For a variety of reasons, recoveries of these populations has failed, so that in 2025, NOAA fisheries found that these species continued to decline and that the major reason for this was the blockage from their habitats by basin dams. Without changes, it has been postulated that these species could become expatriated from the basin by 2040.

At this point, the McKenzie River basin maintains the only Western Cascades population of bull trout and what is considered the stronghold population of salmon in the Willamette Basin.

With continued warming of basin waters, this means that access to high headwaters of the basin is increasingly important for possible recovery of either species. 

So where does Trail Bridge Dam fit in? Regarding bull trout, spawning surveys have documented the remaining populations of any size are above and below this dam.

I will not go into the specific waters that they inhabit, as I have been asked to avoid providing that information in public, because poaching of the fishery is another major problem threatening their existence.

From what we know, establishing effective fish passage below and above the river, up and down, would allow integration of these two isolates and enhance their range to exploit.

In the case of Chinook salmon, there would be a double benefit from fish passage. Salmon are now largely blocked from the headwaters and again due to warming, expanding their range upriver would be beneficial.

Also one reason that bull trout have been extinguished from all the other subbasins in the last 40 years is the dam not only blocked their movement, but also blocked the salmon and steelhead which these carnivorous fish feed on. So passage of salmon would be a double benefit to both. 

We’re aware that EWEB is required, as part of your FERC license, to establish fish passage at Trail Bridge Dam by 2031. Given the information I’ve provided, I hope you will make this a priority and assure that the implementation is fully effective. 

Presenter: Following public comment, Commissioner Sonya Carlson:

Sonya Carlson (EWEB, commissioner): I wanted to note that on the Trail Bridge side of things, the delays have primarily been around issues with sinkholes. And so we’re kind of at the behest of the federal government to get through that situation and find a workable solution.

But anyway, I also wanted to note that if Chinook salmon is something you care about, definitely make sure your tires are inflated because there’s another killer to Chinook salmon, which is 6PPD.

It’s a chemical that’s added to tires. And if your tires are deflated, it actually increases it and it can kill off the the salmon. So another thing that you can do in your daily lives is to make sure your tires are inflated.

Presenter: Commissioner Tim Morris:

Tim Morris (EWEB, commissioner): Thank you for those who came out in person. I wish I could join you, but I’m not feeling well and losing my voice very quickly and rapidly.

But I wanted to say thank you, David, for your advocacy for the Chinook salmon and bull trout. 

And Laura Allen, thank you for coming to the meeting here and testifying on behalf of the Churchill Area Neighborhood. CAN is in my district. And so I appreciate that the neighbors have remained engaged and having conversations around data centers and advocating for their neighborhood.

Presenter: Commissioner John Brown: 

John Brown (EWEB, commissioner): I’d like to thank you from Churchill.  Just know that we don’t have any hidden agendas and we share your concerns. 

And we are very, very cognizant about rates and we have policies already about big, big loads and water and everything else. And so everything that you’re concerned about, we’re aware of. And I mean, this is consumer-owned, and so it’s all of ours.

And as far as your comments about the Trail Bridge (Dam), it’s unfortunate. We would have done this a long time ago, but we had one federal agency saying, ‘Don’t touch the dam, because there’s sinkholes in the reservoir,’ and the other federal agency say, ‘Go ahead and build it.’ 

And it was a Catch-22. And so if we would have built it, the dam would have failed because we had sinkholes. The dam now—we think we’ve got it resolved and we’re working on it. So Lisa (Krentz, EWEB generation manager) has got a good program going there.

Presenter: EWEB commissioners respond to public comments from Churchill Area Neighbors and from the McKenzie Flyfishers Oct. 6.