NORTH UMPQUA HYDROELECTRIC PROJECT

project date: 2012 | by susan jurasz

After driving for several hours deep in the forest, we turn off the main road and a beautiful, lush meadow is exposed. Here, as far as you can see in either direction is a huge serpentine pipe. Standing beside it, it towers over my head. The pipe is made of wooden planks like a barrel and held together with hundreds of steel bands. The outside is damp with moss and in some places tiny holes allow water to spray out, creating rainbows where the sunlight hits them. This pipe is part of a hydroelectric project dating back to the late 1940s, and is, to this day, functional and producing electricity for Southern Oregon.

Constructed between 1947 and 1956, the eight hydroelectric developments that make up the 194-megawatt (mw) North Umpqua Hydroelectric Project use water primarily from the North Umpqua River and are located entirely within the Umpqua National Forest about 60 miles east of Roseburg. PacifiCorp contracted Sea Reach to design, fabricate, and install signage with maps of the area, a list of recreational opportunities, information about the National Forest and a history and explanation of the hydroelectric project. Signs were installed in 2010.