On Saturday evening another person was rescued from drowning in the spillway. He was a floater with an air mattress and ended up in the middle of the river fighting to get away from the spillway. The current forced him against the spillway and he was on the verge going under.
Ironically we were having a gathering to support the Bend Paddle Trail Alliance on the back lawn at Alder Creek Kayak and Canoe. I saw the struggling person and called to the rest of the group, a posse ran to his rescue, pulled him up and he flushed through. A few bumps and bruises and he is okay.
This is my fifth summer in Bend and I have heard of a few deaths and have seen numerous close calls with the infamous spillway. I think the spillway must be removed and I know many others feel the same. On any given summer day the Deschutes River from Farewell Bend Park to the spillway is the most crowded recreation area in Central Oregon.
How many more people have to die before this liability is removed?
Paul Rodham
This article appears in Aug 14-20, 2008.
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You cannot protect all the ignorant people. The spillway may help rid us of those who should not produce offspring.
thats what you get when the take is less than 20 yards from the spill way.
Does this spillway really serve an actual purpose other than creating news?
Sure the spillway has a purpose, it creates that nice placid section of river that everyone likes so much. Indeed, let us take it out and return the river to it’s natural state. The river will become narrow again, the meanders will return, there will be spots with deep holes and others with shallow rocky spills. The water level will once again rise and fall to the unnatural fluctuations of the upstream water releases and irrigation diversions.
Unfortunately the load of silt held there will also be released. It’ll really bury Mirror Pond – finally ending the debate over dredging – but that’s a small price to pay for saving just one ignorant fool from their own stupidity.