Dorena Dam Hydroelectric Project, FERC No. 11945

Dorena Lake Dam (ACOE photo)

Dorena Lake Dam is located on the Row River, a tributary of the Coast Fork Willamette River in western Oregon, approximately six miles east of the town of Cottage Grove, in Lane County, Oregon. The Dorena project was completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) in 1949 at a cost of $14 million and currently provides flood control, irrigation, recreation opportunities, and improved navigation downstream.

This project, as proposed by Symbiotics LLC, will have an installed capacity of 8.3 MW from two turbine/generator units. The utilization of two units will allow the most efficient usage of the current regulated flow releases ranging from 260 to 812 cfs and a gross design head of 85 feet. This proposal requires no project use modifications and only utilizes a portion of the released flows necessary for the originally authorized project purposes to produce electrical energy. Therefore the area and capacity of the impoundment will not be affected by operation of the proposed hydroelectric project.

Estimated Monthly Power Production

As a run-of-river operation, the Dorena Lake Dam Hydroelectric Project will use only available water released from the reservoir by the ACOE. The estimated monthly power generation will range from 0 gWh (July and August) to a high of 2.3 gWh (February). On average, the annual production would be 17.5 gWh.

The preliminary permit was issued by the FERC on July 27, 2001 to Symbiotics LLC. Almost two years later (April 23, 2003), Symbiotics submitted a Stage I Consultation Document to the agencies. Proposed studies were undertaken during the following year and are still continuing. On April 8, 2004, the Draft License Application (Stage II) was mailed and the Final License Application (Stage III) was mailed to the FERC June 30, 2004.

On July 30, 2004, the FERC made notice that the Dorena Application was accepted for filing and requested that agencies submit additional study requests. An acceptance or defiency letter is expected by the end of August 2004.

The following section contains links to available public documents for the project, as well as the proposed project boundary overlaid on a 1:24K USGS quad, and slideshows presented to the public by Symbiotics LLC. All documents are available in PDF format (please visit the Adobe Acrobat website for a free reader). The files tend to be large, and file sizes have been noted next to links as a warning. They may be more easily downloaded if you right-click on the hyperlink and choose "Save Target As..."

Project Documents and Correspondence

• Dorena Application for 401 Water Quality Certification. This page contains links to the original 401 Application filed in March 2006 with Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and subsequent filings of additional information from 2007.

• Revised Juvenile Salmonid Sampling Draft Final Report (1591 KB). This report contains the results of the otolith analysis and addresses comments received from NOAA-Fisheries and ODEQ.

• Information Update sent November 1, 2005 (2922 KB). This letter contains the reports for the Juvenile Salmonid Sampling Study, Rainbow Trout Spawning Study, Mercury Contamination Study, Benthic Aquatic Invertebrate Study, and Interstitial Void Measurement Study.

• Letter sent November 1, 2005 (3266 KB). This letter to FERC contains correspondence associated with Oregon SHPO and their letter of concurrence.

• Extension Deadline Request (28 KB). This letter (October 13, 2005) is a extension deadline request for providing information pursuant to Item 2(b) (Juvenile Salmonid Sampling Study) from the additional information request (Schedule A) from FERC dated July 8, 2005.

• Response to FERC Request for Additional Information Letter sent September 6, 2005 (5877 KB). This document contains responses to items 2, 7, 8 and 9 of the additional information request (Schedule A) from FERC dated July 8, 2005.

• Response to FERC Request for Additional Information document sent August 31, 2005 (2381 KB). This document contains the response to items 3 and 4 of the additional information request (Schedule A) from FERC dated July 8, 2005.

• Mercury Contamination Study (328 KB). This document contains updated mercury data for macroinvertebrates collected March 2005 and was issued June 7, 2005.

• Response to FERC Request for Additional Information Letter sent April 22, 2005 (5315 KB). This document contains the response to the additional information request from FERC, Schedule B dated February 24, 2005.

• Addendum #3 to the Final License Application (1057 KB) This document contains additional Applicant responses to comments related to FERC's Deficiency of License Application and Additional Information Request letter dated August 27, 2004 and received after Addendum #2 was filed. The following final version of various reports and proposals (included as appendices in Addendum #2) were submitted to FERC on January 19, 2005.
  Final Mercury Study Contamination Report (469 KB)
  Final False Fish Attraction Tailrace Screen Proposal (661 KB)
  Final Rainbow Trout Spawning Study (1392 KB)
  Final Juvenile Salmonid Sampling Proposal (312 KB)
  Final Interstitial Void Measurement Proposal (1581 KB)

• Addendum #2 to the Final License Application (2080 KB) This document (filed with FERC November 23, 2004) contains the Applicant's responses to FERC's Deficiency of License Application and Additional Information Request letter dated August 27, 2004. Due to their large size, individual appendices are available separately.
  Appendix A: Affidavit of Publication (22 KB)
  Appendix B: Exhibit G - Project Maps (1156 KB)
  Appendix C: Land Management Report And Associated Correspondence (6830 KB)
  Appendix D: Mercury Study Contamination Report And Associated Correspondence (2444 KB)
  Appendix E: Memoranda Of Agency Meetings, Summer 2004 (40 KB)
  Appendix F: Agency Requests For Additional Studies (1829 KB)
  Appendix G: False Fish Attraction Tailrace Screen Proposal And Associated Correspondence (3856 KB)
  Appendix H: Ramping Proposal Correspondence (89 KB)
  Appendix I: Rainbow Trout Spawning Study And Associated Correspondence (4187 KB)
  Appendix J: Juvenile Salmonid Sampling Proposal And Associated Correspondence (3108 KB)
  Appendix K: Recreational Resources Correspondence (6238 KB)
  Appendix L: Visual Resources Correspondence (12959 KB)
  Appendix M: Soil Erosion Control Plan And Associated Correspondence (5760 KB)
  Appendix N: Documentation Of Tribal Correspondence (930 KB)
  Appendix O: Documentation Of Ape Approval (193 KB)
  Appendix P: Corps Water Control Plan (536 KB)
  Appendix Q: Construction Schedule And Associated Correspondence (1175 KB)

• Addendum #1 to the Final License Application (6300 KB) This document contains Applicant responses to Stage II comments received after June 30, 2004 and was forwarded to FERC and agencies on August 24, 2004.

• Final License Application: Stage III Consultation Document (individual exhibits follow):
  Cover Page, Table of Contents and Initial Statement (735 KB)
  Exhibit A: Project Description (23 KB)
  Exhibit B: Project Operations (36 KB)
  Exhibit C: Construction History and Schedule (21 KB)
  Exhibit D: Statement of Costs and Financing (15 KB)
  Exhibit E: Environmental Studies Report (4952 KB)
  Exhibit F: General Drawings (490 KB)
  Exhibit G: Project Maps (1078 KB)

  Download Entire Application (7276 KB)

• Draft License Application for Dorena Lake Dam Hydroelectric Project, FERC No. 11945 (5380 KB)
• Proposed Resource Monitoring and Field Investigations for the Dorena Lake Hydroelectric Project, FERC No. 11945 (198 KB)
• Dorena Lake Hydroelectric Project, FERC No. 11945 - Stage One Consultation (1567 KB)

Project Slideshows

• Project slideshow presented in Cottage Grove, Oregon, May 25, 2005
• Oregon tri-project slideshow presented in Portland, Oregon, January 11, 2005
• Oregon tri-project slideshow presented in Prineville, Oregon, September 28, 2004
• Oregon tri-project slideshow presented in Salem, Oregon, July 30, 2004
• Project slideshow presented in Salem, Oregon, June 3, 2004
• Project slideshow presented in Cottage Grove, Oregon, May 20, 2003

Other Project Files

• List of Proposed Studies
• Map of Project Boundary
• Artist Rendition of Completed Project

If you have comments regarding this project and wish to have them included in the consultation process, please address them to: