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 seismically vulnerable elements. She said the reservoir-restriction option has an estimated quantified value of about $362 million and that reclamation is required to evaluate that nonstructural approach in its federal review. CWS staff said a reservoir restriction could cut roughly half of CWS's stored water allocation and that partners are strongly opposed because of water-quality, thermal and operational impacts.

Why this matters: Scoggins Dam provides water for municipal systems, farms and flow augmentation for water-quality compliance. A federal decision to pursue a reservoir restriction rather than structural mitigation would change regional water availability and could require CWS and others to pursue other, potentially costly, strategies for thermal management and permit compliance.

Key points from the meeting: - Project history: the dam was authorized in Public Law 89-596 (1966). Reclamation moved the project into its dam-safety program after seismic studies found high risk; the joint project feasibility work completed in 2020 showed multiple technically feasible options, including a seismic-only retrofit, a dam raise and a downstream dam. - Cost and allocation: estimates for the large expansion and full mitigation grew from the hundreds of millions; while dam-safety projects have historically carried an 85% federal / 15% local cost share, CWS staff warned that new repayment analyses produced materially different allocations and that the local share could rise substantially for CWS under some scenarios. - May 2025 federal change in direction: Reclamation asked partners to evaluate a reservoir restriction and smaller, focused structural alternatives. Reclamation also faces internal staffing losses and more competitive federal prioritization under current appropriations pressure, agency staff told partners.

Board response and direction: Commissioners asked CWS to develop a clearer, board-level position and a strategic advocacy plan. The board requested: - CWS prepare a concise position statement and a strategy to communicate risks of a reservoir restriction to the Bureau of Reclamation, the county's federal delegation and regional stakeholders; and - Staff develop a plan for coordinated federal advocacy (including industry and municipal partners) and return with a proposed action plan ahead of next year's likely federal engagement (suggested April/May timeframe for a Washington, D.C. fly-in).

No formal county action to commit funds or change policy was taken at the work session. Commissioners emphasized the need for CWS to present a formal position, to expand stakeholder engagement (including industrial customers and mayors), and to work with the county's federal delegation to press Reclamation for proposals that meet Cascadia-subduction-zone seismic performance requirements.

Ending: CWS staff said they will follow up with additional documentation on the decision history and on the specific design and repayment analyses; commissioners asked for a November roundtable item to crystallize the county's position and an advocacy plan for federal engagement.