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DEVELOPMENT A creek (finally) runs through it Comment By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness MailTribune.com By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness Posted Jun. 22, 2016 at 4:53 PM Updated Jun 23, 2016 at 4:52 PM By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness Posted Jun. 22, 2016 at 4:53 PM Updated Jun 23, 2016 at 4:52 PM » Social News Hansen Creek re-emerged Wednesday as a narrow, three-quarter-mile trickle through south Medford. The flow between Garfield Street and Stewart Avenue marked the end of a nine-year ordeal requiring countless gigabytes and thousands of pages of documentation. In the end, however, Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and National Marine Fisheries Service signed off on the project, allowing KOGAP Enterprises to move forward with its $200 million, 79-acre project at the old KOGAP mill site. "We've restored the function of a creek that was destroyed years ago, creating a new riparian zone," said Kerry KenCairn of KenCairn Landscape Architecture in Ashland. "We don't know what the course of the creek was 100 years ago, but we do know what the creek bed and what the vegetation was like 100 years ago." The permitting process was arduous, tedious and costly, but now that the creek is flowing once more, it's been worth it, said Ed Istel, KOGAP Enterprises’ vice president and director of corporate development. "It's been very difficult to work through, jumping through all the hoops," Istel said. "We had to redo the environmental and flow studies through the whole watershed basin for Hansen Creek. Sometimes it seemed we were juggled back and forth between the agencies with nothing happening. The Army Corps went through four or five people being charge of the project during the time. They're up in Eugene, and the nature of the organization meant that the people we were dealing with were transferred to a different office or retired. It was a nightmare." KenCairn said there have been 15 permits associated with the project to date, with more storm-water permits coming as each piece of property gets developed. She estimates her office, with as many as five people working on the project at one time or another, put 2,500 hours into the project. "I probably have 3 feet of binders from this project," she said. "Then there was all of the civil engineering and a huge environmental study." Soil samples bogged down the project to some extent, but not as much as a potential endangered species issue that turned out to be a false alarm. "When we first were walking into this project, we had talked to the Army Corps, and it looked like we were going to be able to go through this without worrying about endangered species," KenCairn said. "So it was going to be maybe a two-year permitting process. " Then in 2009 came a notice that extended the project by years. "Even though they know it's not a salmon-bearing stream, it was listed at some point, and therefore we had to go through that whole National Marine Fisheries process anyway," KenCairn said. "Ultimately, we only found sunfish and roach." Once preliminary approval came, it took crews eight to nine months to dig a channel through the property. "We had to test every bucket of soil that came out for arsenic and lead because there used to be an orchard here way back when," Istel said. "We had to remove any contaminated soil, and we ran into a lot of soil removal." Some 70,000 cubic yards of dirt were excavated and removed from a 3,000-foot channel, which runs 8 to 10 feet below the surrounding ground, said Frank McElheran, KOGAP's excavation superintendent. Last summer, the new creek bed was engineered, surveyed and planted. "Part of the permit requirement was that we gave it one season of growing," he said. "It's done real well." On Wednesday afternoon, a large backhoe tore out the final sections of 40-foot plugs at both ends of the meandering stretch that kept the previous flow from going into the new channel. "Within a week, it should run at full throttle," Istel said. "This time of the year, we're a little bit at the mercy of Medford Irrigation District about how much water they're releasing." Now that the creek has begun flowing through its new channel, KOGAP is required to monitor the stream's surroundings for the next five years to ensure no non-native or invasive species take root. "After five years, it will somewhat self-sustain," KenCairn said. "Invasive plants are less likely because there will be such a healthy native environment." Three ponds, rocks and dozens of root balls augment thousands of native trees, bushes and shrubs that have been planted along the creek. "We're getting a lot of critters out here — coyotes, skunks and herons, with ducks and geese landing in the new ponds," Istel said. With the waterway completed, Istel said the remainder of the Stewart Meadows Village project can move forward. "It's going to allow us to put our vehicle bridges over Hansen Creek to connect Phase I and II," he said. "Then we'll have a pedestrian bridge that will connect the residential component to the retail area." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GregMTBusiness , on Facebook at www.facebook.com/greg.stiles .31. By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness MailTribune.com By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune Follow @@GregMTBusiness Posted Jun. 22, 2016 at 4:53 PM Updated Jun 23, 2016 at 4:52 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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