By Gloria Coleman | Dec. 26, 2025 | Roseburg News-Review
The Winchester Water Control District (WWCD) was told to start work next week on improving the fish passage in the Winchester Dam to be consistent with current standards, but an appeal might change all that.
An Office of Administrative Hearings ruling issued by Senior Administrative Law Judge Bradley Schmidt in early December proposed that the Oregon Department Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) order the WWCD to install fish passage consistent with a timeline and criteria set in the document, with a projected completion date by the end of Dec. 2028.
The timeline allowed for a year of project engineering design plans development from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2026; permit submission and acquisition for six months; and construction spanning 29 months from July 2027 to Dec. 2029. Court documents say any party that disagrees with the recommended action may file exceptions to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on or before the 14th day after the Proposed Order was served.
The 61-page ruling came after the ODFW issued a Notice of Non-Compliance, Proposed Order, and Opportunity for Contested Case Hearing to the WWCD, requiring the installation of fish passage at the Winchester Dam consistent with current standards. The district responded Oct. 3, requesting a hearing to contest the notice.
Between Dec. 2024 and July 2025, parties swapped witness testimonies from a variety of people. Time was granted in the end for written closing arguments, and the record closed Oct. 10.
ODFW Public Information Officer for the Umpqua and Rogue Watersheds Meghan Dugan said the ruling is not a final resolution in the case involving fish passage at the Winchester Dam, and it sets into motion further procedural actions
Involved parties have until Jan. 2, 2026, to provide comments for the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission to consider. There is no pre-determined timeline for when the commission will review the comments and ruling, and the commission will consider issuing a final fish passage order to the WWCD. Depending on the commission’s order, there may be additional legal responses.
Winchester Water Control District Secretary Summer Baranko said the district received the ruling within the last week.
“Our legal counsel strongly disagree with the legal analysis and the District is authorizing them to take further action including pursuing review in the Court of Appeals,” Baranko said in an email.
The Winchester Dam is not a stranger to litigation, having been the center of over four years of federal lawsuits brought by multiple environmental groups including WaterWatch of Oregon, Steamboaters and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermens’ Association. As reported by The News-Review in Sept. 2025, U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut ruled that the Winchester Dam is not directly or indirectly causing injury or death to Oregon Coast coho salmon.
Southern Oregon Program Director at WaterWatch Jim McCarthy said the ruling could help the North Umpqua River’s native migratory fish find an easier path upstream and downstream past the Winchester Dam. The construction is expected to cost upwards of $70 million dollars.
“The North Umpqua River is vital to Oregon’s economy and quality of life but faces serious challenges due to dams, climate change, population growth, and other impacts,” McCarthy said. “Winchester Water Control District’s fish-killing, dangerous, and obsolete dam provides no flood control, hydropower, or water supply function except to back up the river for a private waterski lake. It’s long past time to end the needless harm this dam causes to invaluable natural resources.”
This article originally appeared in the Dec. 26, 2025, issue of the Roseburg News-Review.