If you follow local news, you have likely seen and heard articles about the controversy over public access to Oswego Lake. 13 years ago a local gentleman began a court battle to allow public access to the lake. After winding through various courts, a judge deemed that the lake, because it is navigable, is a public waterway. Over the past week or so, various kayakers and paddle boaters have been accessing and using the lake.
I feel like I see this from both sides. There’s an inherent philosophy in Oregon that water belongs to everyone. Oregon historically deemed many years ago that beaches on the coast are public and not private. If you can get to the sand, you can walk on the sand. This seems to mostly hold true for rivers, creeks and lakes as well. Certainly some bodies of water are so small that they are merely scenic and not useful for recreation. I’ve been in many homes that have small streams in their yards and no one would question that the property owner does not have to allow all of the neighborhood on their property to wade in the little stream. Their right to private use is just not questioned.
I think that this is the basis for the controversy over the lake.
Oswego Lake historically was a very small body of water. Much of it was marshy. It was enlarged and improved by the Oregon Iron and Steel Company beginning in 1850 (before Oregon was even a state). The purpose for the enlargement was to create a dam and to power the steel company’s manufacturing efforts. They cleared out the marshes and excavated to allow water to come in from the Tualatin River, to flow the length of the lake, and to exit via a dam to the Willamette River. With these efforts, the lake very much became navigable. But bear in mind that most of the lake is man made. It is also currently man maintained.
Silt and debris fills the lake. It takes man to remove the silt and to keep the water as clean as possible.
In 1942 the Oregon Iron and Steel Company deeded the lake bed and the rim of the lake to the Lake Oswego Corporation. The Lake Corp is privately funded by the people who have access to the lake via living on it or having deeded easement rights to it. The funds come from annual assessments that are privately paid and do not involve public money, such as property taxes. It is completely funded, privately.
If you buy a house on the lake you have a one-time fee of about $7500 and then annual dues of several hundred dollars. The easements are less expensive with one-time fees of $500-$3500, and then annual dues of several hundred dollars. There are about 4000 households in Lake Oswego with access to the lake.
In the many years that I have lived in Lake Oswego I have watched the water quality deteriorate and then be improved. For decades people dropped grass clippings into the water. Add to that the run off from fertilized lawns, and it created a smelly mess. The Lake Corp stepped in. They established rules to stop the behavior that was creating the problem. They put in several aerators at various locations to infuse the water with air. Several years ago they drained the lake and excavated the silt from the bottom of the lake.
The Lake Corp has a paid staff of eight people. To put anything into the lake, even a paddle board, you have to have the vessel inspected and then pay an annual licensing fee. This helps assure that invasive species don’t contaminate the water. The Lake Corp also has a security boat that patrols the lake during heavy use to assure that only licensed crafts are on the lake and to insure the use of life vests.
All of this is done at no cost to the public.
My question now is this. If the public has access, will the public start paying for the cost of maintaining the lake? Do people in Portland, Beaverton and Oregon City want to be taxed to maintain the water?
Yes, I understand the logic of seeing a body of water and feeling like everyone should be able to use it. But the situation at Oswego Lake is pretty unique. I don’t have the answer here, but it will certainly be interesting to see how it plays out. I also hope that people who use the lake will take every precaution to stay safe. I am aware of at least one incident in which someone chose to swim across the lake and got severely injured by a power boat. Is the public aware that if you are not in a boat you need to stay between to buoys and the shore line? Bottom line, in my opinion, is that if the public is going to use the lake, they need to start paying the cost of the upkeep, and they need to know the rules for safety if they go into the water.
Dianne