REVIEW: New doc blames PGE operations for water quality decline on Deschutes

The Last 100 Miles debuts in Portland on July 9. Additional screenings to be held in Hood River, The Dalles, Maupin

Tragic beauty: Something’s up with the water quality on the Lower Deschutes River. A new film explains. Photo: The Last 100 Miles/Peterson Hawley Productions

By Kendra Chamberlain. July 8, 2024. The latest film from award-winning documentary duo Michael Peterson and Steven Hawley follows the Deschutes River Alliance’s efforts to remedy ongoing water-quality issues on the lower Deschutes River in central Oregon.

The Last 100 Miles: The Fight for the Lower Deschutes River follows a group of anglers who have documented water-quality violations in the lower Deschutes for the last decade.

The group claims Portland General Electric’s operation of Pelton Round Butte Hydroelectric Project is threatening angling livelihoods as the water downstream of the dams violates state standards.

Peterson, who wrote and directed the film, has been involved with the Deschutes River Alliance for years. Hawley—the second half of Peterson Hawley Productions, and a DRA board member—introduced him to the organization.

DRA is a fiscal sponsor of the film.

Peterson said the goal of the documentary is to raise awareness about the issue.

“About a year and a half ago, I thought, ‘we could really reach a lot of people and make a huge difference with a full-length feature film. You could reach people that you never could any other way,’” Peterson told Columbia Insight . “That’s what I do. I make films and try and help inspire positive change in the world, and that’s what I’m hoping the film can do.”

The Last 100 Miles is captivating, even heartbreaking at times.

“What the Deschutes River used to be 15 years ago is not what it is now,” said Peterson. “It’s still an amazing river, but it’s just not near as vibrant and full of life as it used to be.”

Deschutes deteriorating

The Pendleton Round Butte project includes three dams built in the 1950s and 1960s.

In 2009, a 273-foot-tall Selective Water Withdrawal Tower was installed to offer fish passage for steelhead and salmon for the first time since the dams were built.

After the tower was installed, water quality on the lower Deschutes began degrading at an alarming rate, according to the DRA.

Tower critics—including retired state government employees from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW)—say they have identified the culprit, as well as what they claim is an easy solution to the problem.

Towering presence: PGE’s selective water withdrawal tower on the lower Deschutes River was installed to offer passage for steelhead and salmon. In that sense, it’s working. Photo: The Last 100 Miles/Peterson Hawley Productions

The film includes interviews with Rick Hafele, a retired aquatic biologist with DEQ, Larry Marxer, former chief water quality expert at DEQ, and Steven Pribyl, a retired ODFW fish biologist.

The men sit on the board of DRA, which was formed in 2014 to address the issue of the tower.

The group formed its own water quality-monitoring program, run by DRA staff scientist Hannah Camel along with Hafele, Pribyl and Marxer.

A network of sensors deployed at different points in the river track temperature, pH levels and dissolved oxygen levels every 30 minutes from April to November.

The group produces annual reports documenting the river’s water quality.

Evidence they’ve collected is compelling. Their monitoring has found that nearly every day during the monitoring period, at least one water-quality standard is being violated.

PGE’s own water quality monitoring confirms these violations. A study commissioned by PGE and published in 2016 recorded pH levels that were out of compliance to state standards, but these were chalked up to a calibration error.

That’s just the beginning of the story.

DRA-affiliated anglers passionately address the economic impacts of reduced fishing on the lower Deschutes, though it’s obvious these people’s interest in the river extend beyond their livelihoods. They’re viscerally connected to the river.

Opposing perspective missing

Noticeably absent from the documentary are the dam’s owners and operators.

Peterson said both PGE and the Confederated Tribes of Warms Springs, which holds 49% ownership of the project, declined to be interviewed for the film.

The Confederated Tribes of Warms Springs have been involved with the dam project since the 1950s, but acquired an ownership stake in 2001.

The ownership split has given the Tribe more say over the project’s management, and its environmental impacts on the river.

The Tribe was instrumental in reintroducing salmon and steelhead to the lower Deschutes over a decade ago.

The DRA has been working just as long on getting PGE to tweak how it releases water to help improve water quality on the lower Deschutes.

Sarah Cloud, executive director of the DRA, said ultimately it’s up to DEQ to enforce the state water standards.

“What we want is for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to enforce the Clean Water Act on the lower Deschutes River,” Cloud told Columbia Insight . “It’s a very simple ask, and it’s something they can do.

“We have asked PGE directly to try this for three years and see what happens to the river. And they have yet to do it. DEQ needs to step up, do their jobs and make them run the project so it’s in compliance.”

The Last 100 Miles: The Fight for the Lower Deschutes River will debut at Cinema 21 in Portland on July 9 at 7:15 p.m. Additional screenings will be held in Hood River, The Dalles and Maupin, Ore., in August and September.

Read Columbia Insight ‘s own investigation into PGE’s Strategic Water Withdrawal Tower here .

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