[Lamplighter]

Without the Willamette Falls locks, commercial shipping and recreational boating
is severely restricted to the south of Portland for the remainder of the Willamette River.

The locks were closed "for repairs" during George W.'s administration,
and since then only a few recreational boats can make it through the locks.
This affects federal funding because $ is based on commercial tonnage.



Portland Tribune
Raymond Rendleman
June 27, 2012

Corps may give up Willamette Locks

A large, multijurisdictional meeting last week launched new partnerships to usurp the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers'
control over the shuttered Willamette Falls Locks between Oregon City and West Linn.

As a rare, intact piece of America's canal-building era, the locks are unique in Oregon as the first significant
navigational construction on the Willamette River and in the greater Columbia River drainage basin.

The locks joined eight other unique Oregon places in gaining the dubious "Most Endangered Places" distinction,
a label that attracts preservation-league resources. The National Trust for Historic Preservation simultaneously
named the locks one of its new "National Treasures."

Local officials are fed up with what they see as the Corps' neglect of the historic, manmade waterway.
Citing public safety concerns in November, the Corps moved the 138-year-old locks into a "non-operational" status,
thereby cutting the navigational potential of the Willamette River in half.<snip>

Corps Project Manager Patrick Duyck offered several excuses in response to the community outcry.
Finding seven gates and anchors that were more than 50 years old and experiencing excessive corrosion,
the Corps determined that the distressed condition of three anchors in particular increases potential for failure.
With the locks "non-operational," as Duyck explained federal law, private partners
can no longer contribute to what he estimates will be a $3- to $5-million repair job.
He acknowledged, however, that the Corps has "no idea" of the actual condition of buried anchors.

Then the crowd turned what had been a simmering frustration into outright revolt.
During the June 20 meeting at the Ainsworth House in Oregon City,
Lehan was among the more than 50 people raising their hands when
a facilitator asked whether the Corps should give up the locks.
<snip>
The One Willamette River Coalition, whose members have been working for six years
to keep the 1873 locks operating, picked up some powerful new friends May 22
with a joint public announcement by the National Trust for Historic Preservation
and the Historic Preservation League of Oregon.