Clean Water Services warns of federal plan shift on Scoggins Dam; county asks agency for formal position and action plan

Clean Water Services officials told the Washington County Board of Commissioners on Sept. 9 that the Bureau of Reclamation has paused further work on the previously advancing Scoggins Dam (Hag Lake) dam-safety project and is evaluating nonstructural alternatives and smaller structural options.

Tracy Rainey, government relations manager for Clean Water Services (CWS), briefed the board on the project's history and the May 2025 federal update. She said the dam holds roughly 54,000 acre-feet of water and supplies drinking water, irrigation and water-quality releases used by regional partners. Rainey said project costs have risen substantially over time and that reclamation's latest internal economic-repayment analysis shifted how it valued water-quality benefits, increasing local cost-share estimates under earlier models.

Rainey told commissioners the Bureau of Reclamation is now comparing a reservoir-restriction (reducing stored volume) and a narrowed structural alternative focused on the spillway and the most…