Document text
Gold Hill must redo water supply Dam and canal trap juvenile fish By MELISSA MARTIN Dam options The Bureau of Reclamation's regional office in Boise on Tuesday offered six options to Gold Hill to remove a diversion dam that biologists consider harmful to fish. Gold Hill draws all its municipal water from that canal. The options are: Move the city's intake pumps about half a mile away to the headgate Drill a well and draw groundwater to supply the city Build new screens on the headgate and use a buried pipeline or reconstructed smaller canal to deliver water Move the fish screen 50 feet downstream from the headgate and build a fish return pipe Move the fish screen 1,800 feet downstream to the existing fish ladder (used when the power plant was in operation in the 1940s) Move the fish screens and pump intakes 1,900 feet downstream to the existing power plant. CENTRAL POINT -- The city of Gold Hill must change the way it draws water from the Rogue River for its municipal supply in order to protect fish that get caught in the city's diversion canal, federal officials said Tuesday. The Bureau of Reclamation gave Gold Hill six options -- from moving the city's intake pumps downstream to drilling wells -- to partially dry up a diversion canal that fish biologists call a fish trap. "Our concern is that we protect the juvenile fish to provide upstream passage," said Church Korson of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation office in Bend. He spoke Tuesday during a meeting of the Rogue River Basin Fish Passage Technical Committee in Central Point. "If the fish get in that canal, they have no protection against the 40-foot vertical drop on the other end of the channel," Korson said. Korson said his team, made up of fish biologists, engineers and others, is willing to meet with city leaders to help them narrow the options down to two or three by the end of the year. His office can also help with engineering studies and estimated project costs. "The ball is in the city's court," Korson said. "We can certainly sit down with the (Gold Hill) City Council and let them know what the fish passage team has in mind. But it's not our project and not our facility." The diversion canal runs along Gold Hill's bike path by the Little League fields. Fish enter at the headgates, where the screens are ineffective and water rushes in at 130 cubic feet per second. They exit through a rock tunnel that shoots the diverted water back to the river. It's not just the channel that concerns biologists. The L-shaped, concrete dam nearby is second only to Savage Rapids Dam on a list of 400 fish passage barriers that must be removed from the Rogue River. "The big issue is when we start talking money," said Royal Gasso, Gold Hill's public works director. "The city doesn't have any money to pay for this." When the dam is removed, the river flow will change, likely drying up the channel where the city draws 450 gallons a minute to treat and deliver to its 466 homes and businesses, Gasso said. Gold Hill is one of the few communities in Southern Oregon drawing all of its municipal water from the Rogue River. The city could find another water source, such as drilling wells, said Phil Mann, from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation office in Boise. Bruce Sund, the water master in Josephine County, said wells are not a reliable water source in the area, citing as an example the dry wells at nearby Gold Ray Estates. The city of Rogue River no longer depends on wells as its sole municipal source, he said. Bill Ryan, a CH2M Hill engineer hired by the city, agreed. "I don't think there's a ghost of a chance of getting water from wells because of the bedrock there," Ryan said. Ryan said he is most concerned about the cost to operate and maintain a new water system that Gold Hill would have to build. He also predicted that Gold Hill water users would end up paying more. A typical winter water bill in Gold Hill is $30 for 10,000 gallons of water, compared to $7.60 for 10,000 gallons in Medford. Gold Hill property owners are still paying for the water treatment plant built in 1981 at a cost of $750,000. The owner of a $100,000 home pays about $51 a year for the bond, which expires in 2023. Gold Hill Mayor Tim Roddam said the situation is not hopeless. "When you're forced to deal with an issue, you be creative and keep all the options available," Roddam said. "We came to this meeting today to listen to their proposals. But there are other issues that the city hasn't addressed that we will bring to the table next time." The Rogue River Basin Fish Passage Technical Committee will discuss the Gold Hill diversion dam when it meets again at 9 a.m. on March 15 at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife district office, 1495 E. Gregory Road, Central Point. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA