Related News
Related News
-
EWEB Board Approves 2025 Budget and Rate Increases to Fund Critical Infrastructure Investments
EWEB’s budget is less than initially projected while still addressing aging infrastructure and rising costs to ensure reliable utility services for Eugene.
Find Out More -
EWEB continues 2025 budget and rate-setting process
EWEB’s elected Board of Commissioners are considering rate changes intended to help maintain reliable utility services and support essential investments in Eugene’s water and electric infrastructure.
Find Out More -
Public Power Week Poster Contest Winners 2024
The results are in! View the winning posters from EWEB's 2024 Public Power Week Poster Contest.
Find Out More -
2025 rate update: Less than Initially Forecasted
While the costs of producing and delivering electricity and water are rising, EWEB is actively working to reduce the financial impact of rate increases in 2025.
Find Out More -
EWEB Launches 2024 Residential Customer Survey
EWEB has again partnered with professional research firm, GreatBlue Research, Inc., to conduct a survey of residential customers, starting October 30, 2024.
Find Out More -
Spill Drill 2024: EWEB & partners practice containing hazardous materials spills on McKenzie River
EWEB coordinates the drill as part of our work to protect the McKenzie River – the source of drinking water for more than 200,000 residents of the Eugene metro area.
Find Out More -
Imagine a Day Without Water 2024
Learn how you can prepare for an extended water outage.
Find Out More -
EWEB to Mitigate 2025 Rate Increases to Reduce Customer Impacts
Amid a turbulent energy landscape and rising costs, EWEB has reduced projected rate increases for electricity and water in 2025.
Find Out More -
“We're just surrounded with people who are really helpful."
Michele Victor lost her home, septic system, and two cats to the fire. But thanks to EWEB's Septic System Repair and Replacement Grants, she is one step closer to rebuilding her home.
Find Out More -
EWEB Partners with the City and YMCA to Celebrate New Amazon Park Emergency Water Station Site
Hundreds of attendees practiced filling up water containers at Saturday's demonstration event.
Find Out More -
Source Water Protection Week: Our Commitment to Clean Water
EWEB celebrates our community's commitment to protecting the McKenzie River, the source of Eugene's drinking water.
Find Out More -
September is National Preparedness Month: 3 tips to prepare your home & family
Let's "Be Ready" together!
Find Out More -
EWEB invests in preparedness for severe weather and natural disasters
Just as you take steps to safeguard your home and family, EWEB is investing in equipment and processes to ensure our community’s electric and water systems remain reliable in the face of adversity.
Find Out More -
EWEB, SUB and RWD join forces at Lane County Fair to distribute water to fairgoers
The Eugene Water & Electric Board, Springfield Utility Board and Rainbow Water District are teaming up for the 9th year to provide fairgoers with clean, cold free water.
Find Out More -
EWEB explores rate increases to cover rising costs and to modernize infrastructure
Amid rising inflation and other challenges, rate increases are necessary to maintain reliable utility services and fund critical investments in Eugene’s water and electric infrastructure.
Find Out More - Show More
EWEB Commissioners, Eugene City Council Members Tour McKenzie River Restoration Projects
June 07, 2022
EWEB Commissioners joined Eugene City Council members and local leaders for a tour of McKenzie River restoration projects, coordinated by EWEB’s Source Water Protection team and our amazing collaborators at McKenzie Watershed Council (MWC), McKenzie River Trust (MRT), and the Willamette National Forest.
The tour focused on the coordinated response to the Holiday Farm Fire, emphasizing the effectiveness of large-scale floodplain enhancement projects for mitigating the impacts of sedimentation and increasing water temperatures.
Tour highlights included stops at Finn Rock Reach and the McKenzie River/South Fork of the McKenzie confluence. At these sites, EWEB, Willamette National Forest, McKenzie River Trust and McKenzie Watershed Council have installed massive projects aiming to restore the river to “Stage 0” conditions, referring to rivers’ natural tendencies to meander throughout a valley floor, to flood wetlands, to send water below the soils in some places (called “hyporheic flow”), and to slow down flows behind obstructions like logjams.
Rivers throughout the world have lost these natural conditions due to pressures from development, as we have altered and managed rivers to protect riverside infrastructure like roads and homes, and due to logging and mining. When the rivers lose their connection to the floodplain and are forced into a single channel, this creates a "firehose effect." The water loses the ability to spread out into the floodplain where the water slows down and drops out sediment and contaminants. Instead, the water flows through the channel at high speeds, carrying sediment and potential contaminants downstream where they can have huge impacts on personal property and infrastructure like roads and our water treatment plant.
By restoring Stage 0 floodplains throughout the McKenzie watershed, EWEB and our partners are restoring river and floodplain functionality to be a first line of defense against threats to drinking water quality. A healthier river can also slow down and store water/larger flow events, provide a haven for wildlife during fire event, and buffer metals, sediment and nutrient loads, and hazardous materials – reducing the work required of our treatment facility.
These projects also create new habitat for endangered salmon, bull trout, Pacific lamprey, and other species, empowering our watershed to protect itself against environmental stressors. In fact, in the first seasons after these projects were completed, redd (salmon nest) counts increased by as much as 20-fold!
“Thanks to all the people who are doing this incredible work, we are restoring and improving the watershed from hundreds of years of human impact,” EWEB Commissioner Sonya Carlson said after the tour. “Getting as close as we can to the natural flow of the waterway clearly has meaningful impact on the native species, our resiliency, and water quality.”
The Commissioners’ tour also visited the Finn Rock Boat landing, where the McKenzie River Trust is fundraising for major improvements, the confluence of Quartz Creek and the McKenzie River, where EWEB and partners are planning another floodplain enhancement project, as well as the former home of Barry Lopez. Lopez, an environmental author who was called a “modern day Thoreau,” lived on and wrote about the McKenzie River for 50 years. He passed away in December of 2020, but now his home serves as a writing retreat and a meeting place for the river conservation community.
Throughout the day, EWEB Commissioners, staff, and partners emphasized how these projects are possible thanks to the collaborative, multi-organizational approach to protecting our watershed and drinking water quality.
We are fortunate to have some of the cleanest drinking water in the country and EWEB's Source Water Protection Program is working to keep it that way. The program's successful track record over two decades enables us to collaborate with McKenzie valley landowners, leverage the diverse expertise of watershed partners, and attract funding support from state and federal sources while setting a national example of watershed protection.