Corps comes through.

Byline: The Register-Guard

If federal agencies were ranked in terms of popularity, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would be near the bottom of the list, perhaps just a notch or two above the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Internal Revenue Service.

However, the corps deserves a round of applause - maybe even a standing ovation - for the remarkable progress it has made on repairing Fern Ridge dam, a project that originally was expected to take two or three years to complete.

Last February, the corps wisely decided to fast-track repairs to the 64-year-old earthen dam, citing concerns over potential dam failure and flooding of downstream communities. Corps officials designated the project as a national priority, shifted funding already allocated for less urgent projects around the country to Fern Ridge and stepped up the pace of planning and construction.

Just eight months later, the corps has announced that repairs to the dam are "substantially done" and that only a few final touches such as landscaping remain. As early as late fall and no later than February, the agency should begin filling the reservoir with water. When the sailing season begins next spring, the lake should be back to its sparkling blue former self.

Oregon's congressional delegation, in particular Congressman Peter DeFazio, deserves credit for prodding the corps to find ways to avoid a lengthy drawdown and to secure funding for the project. But the corps itself deserves credit for demonstrating a high level of responsiveness and flexibility that is hardly characteristic of massive federal bureaucracies.

In the early planning stages, critics accused the corps of insisting on unnecessarily extensive, expensive and time-consuming repairs and of ignoring the hardships they would cause for local communities, businesses and farmers, as well as the many Oregonians who flock the lake each summer for recreation.

Such criticisms proved unwarranted. Citing the possibility of imminent dam failure, corps officials jettisoned plans to retrofit the dam against major earthquakes and worst-case flooding. While it would have been nice to get a five-star renovation, the corps made the right choice under the circumstances to opt for a basic, but still extensive, repair job.

The project still caused some hardships, but they were blunted by the project's short duration and by cooperative weather conditions. Downstream farmers who rely on the lake for irrigation ended up with sufficient water for their crops because of a wet spring and concessions by property owners with senior water rights. While some biologists feared a major fish die-off, unexpectedly high summer water levels ensured that there will be a healthy supply of bass, bluegills and crappies next summer.

As for the local businesses and communities that suffered from the loss of a summer's worth of lake-generated tourism and recreation - and for the thousands of sailers, boaters, fishing enthusiasts and campers who flock to Fern Ridge each summer - they can take solace in the corps' promise of a full lake by next spring.