Willamette Valley System Environmental Impact Statement (DOE/EIS-0540)

Benton, Clackamas, Lane, Linn, Marion, Multnomah, Polk, Washington, and Yamhill counties, Oregon

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The Portland District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) prepared a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) to address the continued operations and maintenance of the Willamette Valley System (WVS) in accordance with authorized project purposes; while meeting Endangered Species Act (ESA) obligations to avoid jeopardizing the continued existence of listed species. The Corps is the lead Federal agency for purposes of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Bonneville Power Administration is a Cooperating Agency.

The WVS consists of 13 multipurpose dams and reservoirs, riverbank protection projects, and hatchery programs to mitigate for effects of the project on fish habitat. BPA markets the hydropower generated at eight of the WVS dams. The most recent NEPA evaluation for the overall WVS operations and maintenance was an EIS completed in 1980. Since 1980, the Corps has modified operations and implemented structural improvements for fish passage and temperature control to address effects of the WVS on ESA-listed fish. NEPA evaluations since the 1980 EIS have been project-specific rather than system-wide. There is also new information relevant to the environmental impacts of operating the WVS. The PEIS evaluates the impacts of continued operations and maintenance of the WVS. 

The Corps reinitiated formal consultation under Section 7 of the ESA on the National Marine Fisheries Service's 2008 Biological Opinion for the Willamette River Basin Flood Control Project. Informed by the NEPA process, this formal consultation resulted in the issuance of the 2024 Biological Opinion on December 30, 2024. 
 

CURRENT STATUS

On April 11, 2025, the Corps released the Final PEIS. 

The Water Resources Development Act of 2024 (WRDA 2024), signed into law on January 4, 2025, sets forth a provision (Section 1326) directing the Corps to prepare and formally analyze an alternative that ceases hydropower operations at WVS projects before the Corps completes its review of, and consultation with other Federal agencies on, the operation and maintenance of the projects. To implement this section of WRDA 2024, the Corps plans to prepare a supplemental PEIS analyzing a non-hydropower alternative.  

The Corps will first issue a Record of Decision in 2025 based on the Final PEIS to comply with NEPA requirements on a short-term basis while it prepares the supplemental PEIS. Expected in 2026, the PEIS and the supplemental PEIS will support long-term decision-making regarding the operations and maintenance of the WVS.

SCHEDULE

Notice of Intent Publication:  April 1, 2019
Public Scoping Period:  May 14, 2019 – June 28, 2019
Public Scoping Meetings:  June 2019
Draft PEIS Public Comment Period:  November 25, 2022 – February 23, 2023
Final PEIS:  April 11, 2025
Corps’ Record of Decision:  Spring 2025
Draft Supplemental PEIS:  Winter 2026
Final Supplemental PEIS:  Spring 2026
BPA Record of Decision:  Spring 2026

CONTACT

For more information and for the Corps' point of contact, please visit the Corps' project website.

DOCUMENTS