Saving the North Fork

Saving the North Fork

In 1981, Bob Bumstead, an active member of the McKenzie Flyfishers, read in The Eugene Register-Guard that the Springfield Utility Board and the Emerald People’s Utility District had filed, under the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act, to put five hydroelectric dams on the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River.  Passed into law in 1978 to promote energy conservation and promote renewable energy, PURPA focused on the develop…