Drownings and boating-related deaths needlessly continue claiming lives in Oregon, recently fueled by a heat wave.

The upstream gate on the John Day Dam navigation lock, located on the Columbia River near Rufus, Oregon, failed July 25 when a guide wheel broke. The lock has been returned to service, though repairs are still ongoing. This fact sheet gives a quick snap shot of what happened and what we're doing.

A broken portion of John Day Lock and Dam’s upstream navigation lock gate has slowed river traffic through that portion of the Columbia River. U.S. Army Corps technicians found the damage to a lower guide wheel July 25, and closed the lock to river traffic.

With sizzling temperatures reaching the triple-digits in Portland and the Pacific Northwest this week, people’s demand for electricity is sure to increase. Seasonal surges like this happen during heat waves, cold snaps and, in the mornings before work and in the afternoons when people return home.

The Corps of Engineers' Northwestern Division led a regional exercise June 14-16 to prepare its teams of emergency planners, operators, and engineers for the possibility of a severe earthquake from the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

Women play a vital role in developing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and this great nation. They serve across all career paths in USACE, as leaders and supervisors, engineers and rangers, scientists, and administrators, to name a few.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains and assesses the locks along the Columbia and Snake rivers on an annual basis to keep an estimated $23 billion dollars’ worth of commerce flowing.