Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Kellogg Dam?

Kellogg Dam is in downtown Milwaukie at the confluence with Kellogg Creek and the Willamette River. It blocks Kellogg Creek and sits underneath Oregon Highway 99E. Because it’s located at the confluence, it blocks salmon, steelhead and lamprey’s access to the entire Kellogg and Mount Scott Watershed.

What is the Kellogg Creek Restoration & Community Enhancement Project?

The Kellogg Creek Restoration and Community Enhancement Project will re-establish fish passage into the Kellogg-Mount Scott Watershed, restore a healthy Kellogg Creek, create a new natural area on the site of the current impoundment, replace the aging and vulnerable Highway 99E Bridge with resilient multimodal bridge with a trail under crossing to connect the Willamette River and downtown Milwaukie better.

Why Remove It?
There are many reasons:

• Restore access to two entire watersheds for all the salmon, steelhead, and lamprey migrating through the Willamette River.

• Removal of the #1 Fish Passage Barrier in the state owned by ODOT.

• Provide better water quality by restoring a warm, silty impoundment behind the lake to a natural stream channel.

• Create a new public 15-acre natural area with fish and wildlife habitat, trails, etc. in an equity focus area.

• Replace the earthquake-vulnerable Oregon Highway 99E bridge resting on the 1850sera dam. • Increase flood storage.

• Create 563 living-wage jobs replacing the bridge and restoring the stream.

• Create a pedestrian-bike trail under the freeway between Milwaukie Bay, downtown and MAX, reconnecting downtown Milwaukie to the Willamette River.

• Restore a stream in the City center across the street from Milwaukie High School.

Why Was the Kellogg Dam Built?

The dam was built for a flour mill sometime before 1848, when it appears on pre-Statehood maps. The flour was sold to miners in the California gold rush. 

Does it Serve any Purpose Now?

No, it currently serves no purpose and creates negative impacts on the ecosystem and local communities..The flour mill stopped operating in the 1890s, and burned down in the 1900s. It doesn’t generate power or provide water supply.

Then Why Is It Still Here?

The owner abandoned the dam when the mill shut down in the 1890s and nobody was required to remove it. In 1934, the Oregon Highway 99E bridge was built with a support beam linked to the dam. That made removing the dam impossible without costly replacement of the bridge. The 90-year-old bridge is earthquake-vulnerable and needs to be replaced.

Who Owns the Dam? The Lake?

The Oregon Department of Transportation owns the dam, because it’s part of the bridge structure. The City of Milwaukie owns most of Kellogg Lake impoundment bed, which will make it easy to convert to a public natural area.

How will the project help fish and wildlife?

The dam blocks access to 17 miles of stream habitat for salmon, steelhead, and lamprey. On the few days that the Willamette River is high enough that a few salmon and steelhead can get over the dam, we find them (through both photos and eDNA testing) in the Kellogg and Mt. Scott watersheds. But not enough of the fish make it over the dam to successfully spawn. No lamprey have been able to make it over the dam.

When the dam is removed, coho salmon, steelhead and lamprey will spawn in the upper parts of the watershed. Even more importantly, all the salmon, steelhead and lamprey in the entire Willamette system, will be able to use it as rearing and migration habitat. Young salmon on their way out to sea grow, rest, and eat in the Lower Willamette, and they need tributary junctions and backwater habitat in the newly restored stream to get big and strong before they head to the ocean. On their return from the ocean, they need areas where cold water stops, because the Willamette can get too hot for them in summer and fall. With the impoundment and dam removed, Kellogg Creek will be a vital refuge from the Willamette River. 

The restored stream will be better habitat for other critters too: frogs, birds, river otters, and other wildlife we share Milwaukie with.

How will the project benefit people?

The restored impoundment – currently a muddy, body of water that’s too shallow to paddle - is mostly owned by the City of Milwaukie. It will become a new public natural area with a healthy stream at its’ center, and with trail connections to surrounding parks (Milwaukie Bay, Kronberg Park, Dogwood Park, and the Milwaukie Presbyterian Church Sanctuary) and the Trolley Trail to Gladstone, and the Milwaukie MAX station and food carts. Milwaukie High School, located across the street, will be able to use it as an environmental science living laboratory. Downtown Milwaukie will be reconnected to the Willamette River, and will have a healthy stream in the center of the Milwaukie. The trail connector to the Trolley Trail will allow pedestrians and cyclists to go from Gladstone all the way to Portland or Gresham almost entirely off-highway.

The project will also help underserved communities. The western portion of the Kellogg Creek watershed has been identified as being an equity focus area with poor access to nature. This project will create a new natural area across the street from a high school that is 59% free/reduced lunch students. Rowe Middle School, up Lake Road, is 95% free/reduced lunch students. Increased tree cover will cool the area during extreme heat events. Draining the current impoundment will also reduce flood impacts along lower Kellogg Creek by increasing space for floodwaters within the natural floodplain. Flooding has been increasing in severity during recent years.

What will it look like when the stream is restored?

Restoration design details are being refined based on site studies (see below), property ownership and regulatory constraints, and community input. The concept design is to restore the floodplain to look like what a natural stream in the lower Willamette River floodplain would look like – multiple stream channels and wetlands with different habitat types, with a single channel where needed so the creek can pass through urban infrastructure safely. The precise physical and plan-form details (such as channel, width, and location) is refined with regulatory agency input in the final design phase. Invasive species will be removed and the area will be replanted with native vegetation.

What has been happening recently?

Sediment naturally transported by Kellogg Creek has been accumulating behind the dam in the Kellogg Lake impoundment since 1848. In the summer of 2023 and 2024, you may have seen boats in the impoundment or big machinery in Kronberg Park. Crews were sampling the sediment behind the dam for geotechnical and environmental testing. This information is critical to advancing design of the restored impoundment, new stream channel, and new or modernized infrastructure. You may have also seen survey crews or Watershed Council staff performing surveys, collecting water temperature data, and operating a drone to capture aerial images of the project site. All of this work is being completed to inform project design.

I’ve also seen kids with nets. What are they doing?

Students from Milwaukie High School, Rowe Middle School and other local schools, along with assistants from Portland State University and Lewis and Clark College, have been collecting stream insects from the creek above the impoundment, in the impoundment and below the dam. These insects – aquatic macroinvertebrates are indicators of stream health. This helps us understand how the dam and impoundment have altered the natural stream, and will allow us to measure changes after the dam is removed and the stream is restored to determine ecological benefits created by the project. It’s also a great learning opportunity for the students and teachers. You can learn more about that career development and monitoring work here.

When will the project happen?

We are currently anticipating construction over two seasons in 2028 and 2029. However, the project schedule is subject to change based on funding secured to go to construction, construction sequencing requirements, and regulatory compliance conditions.

How will the community be increasingly engaged in the design process?

Over the next year, the project team will continue to host scheduling tours, events, public meetings, and will begin collecting additional surveys and holding listening sessions to explain the project and get community input on some of the project’s design elements where there are choices to be made, such as community enhancement features. (Some aspects, such as the amount of flow required for fish passage, or the size of supports for the highway bridge, are engineering or regulatory requirements). You may have also seen us tabling at local events. We’ll be reaching out broadly to the whole community to make sure we get everyone’s input.

How can I learn more?

You can email peyton@ncwatersheds.org(link sends e-mail) to have your name added to the list to get notified of public events. Project status will also be updated on this webpage. Thanks for working with us for a healthy Kellogg Creek!

*Last updated October 2024