DETROIT, Ore. (KOIN) — The current water level at Detroit Lake is causing concern for residents ahead of a planned drawdown that would drop the water level even lower this winter.The Army Corp. of Engineers is planning to lower the water level by 55 feet on top of the yearly end-of-year drawdowns ahead of winter. The Army Corps of Engineers said its drawdown is part of a federal mandate to help endangered salmon and steelhead fish species within the lake. It was scheduled for 2025 but was delayed to 2026.In early July, the City of Salem filed a lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers over the drawdown’s expected impacts on the city’s water supply. In a statement, the City said: “Our drinking water is safe, clean, and plentiful, but the Corps plan raises critical concerns about the long-term reliability of our water supply.”In late June, Marion County and a collection of cities sent a formal letter to the Corps, demanding a halt to the drawdown. Detroit Mayor Eric Page continues to be a vocal critic of the planned drawdowns, raising concerns for the cost it would have on his community.“We’re dealing with a 55-foot reduction in the water level over what the low water level is in approximately December,” Page said. “It’s just an economy killer.”Mountain High Grocery employee and area resident Latesia Garcia said the already low water levels ended in an abridged summer season. She says the store makes a bulk of its money in the summer, adding she’s concerned about a continuous cycle where each year following the drawdown, less and less water is stored, making the area less desirable to tourists. “We saw a decrease in people coming from last year to this year; they pretty much only had six weeks to have a summer,” Garcia said. “We’ve seen a decrease in what we need to make for the winter; what we make during the summer keeps us open and running.”“We have a four-month window for that economy in Detroit to survive,” Page added. “We will not have the ability to self-sustain up there in a month’s window… Potentially with this drawdown, if we were to have a very dry winter and they were not able to refill the lake, now we have an economic disaster up there.”Mountain High Grocery is one of only a few businesses still operating in the Detroit following the 2020 wildfires that burned through the area. Garcia suggests that should the tourism numbers go down, it will be all the more difficult to continue to operate, leaving Detroit without a permanent source of food and supplies.“Especially after the fires, we’re still trying to rebuild as a city…We’re the only store that actually runs,” Garcia said. “We’re pretty much the only avenue that all the locals that are still here can come and get groceries, so if we can’t stay open… they have to make the drive to Stayton or Salem.”
KOIN 6 did reach out to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about the lawsuit but said they could not comment on current litigation…