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Eagle Point's new reservoir Photo by Steve Johnson Eagle Point Public Works Director Gary Shipley examines the debris in the bottom of the old city reservoir. The city will dismantle the cover and use the concrete pad as a foundation for a new reservoir in five years or so. Fast-growing town needs more storage for its water supply By MELISSA MARTIN EAGLE POINT -- When you live in a desert, you need water. And the 1,800 soldiers and officers stationed at Camp White during World War II got theirs from a 4 million gallon reservoir built on an Eagle Point hillside. Now 56 years old and long out of commission, the reservoir that served the "City in the Agate Desert" is being dismantled to make room for a new reservoir to serve the fastest growing city in Jackson County. Ray's Demolition Service is removing the historic reservoir's caved-in cover, which has become a dangerous attraction to skateboarders and other youth. The concrete pad underneath will house a new city reservoir in five years or so, said David Hussell, Eagle Point city administrator. The city currently uses two reservoirs: a 200,000-gallon tank 200 feet up the hillside that serves homes along the golf course, and a 3.6 million-gallon reservoir that serves the north side of the city, said Gary Shipley, Eagle Point public works director. The old reservoir was built to last, said Gary Ray, owner of Ray's Demolition. His company also removed the old boiler and fuel room that heated Camp White water. "The reservoir base is built like a bomb bunker," Ray said. Crews used concrete reinforced with steel bars strong enough to hold 32 million pounds of water, he said. The 1943 construction crews didn't take any shortcuts with the roof, either, he said. They used rough-hewn 2-by-12s and massive, 14-by-16 support beams, all cut from old-growth Douglas fir. Ray plans to sell the wood, possibly to someone building a log home and needing a massive beam, a custom builder needing hard-to-find solid wood for a floor or a furniture maker searching for the clear grains of Douglas fir. "We don't get any good wood anymore from old trees," he said. "All of our wood now is from little trees that split." Ray will remove the prized lumber -- along with the rotten and damaged boards bound for someone's fireplace -- with cables, tractors and a yarding crane. The demolition will cost the city $16,500. A new reservoir on the old concrete pad will cost about $1 million, much less than the $4 million to build a reservoir from scratch. "By the time we are ready to build the reservoir, in five or six years, we will have 80 to 90 percent of the funds saved through systems development charges," Hussell said. The city needs a new reservoir because it's growing at a rate of 7.8 percent. Last year's growth was 12 percent, the highest in the region. Currently, 2,000 platted lots have been approved and are ready for new houses, Hussell said. Cities need reservoirs to store water for fires or heavy demand periods in the summer. The reservoirs also create pressure (80 to 90 pounds per square inch in Eagle Point) as the water flows down the hillside and into the 1,450 homes, businesses and schools connected to the city's system, Shipley said. Eagle Point began purchasing Medford Water Commission water in 1935, the first city to do so. The water comes from Big Butte Springs near the base of Mount McLoughlin, travels through transmission lines right through town to White City for metering, then is pumped back to Eagle Point reservoirs for distribution. The wooden reservoir may be coming down, but water remains a key issue in Eagle Point's future. As the region grows and swallows up the excess water from the Big Butte Springs source, cities that buy water from Medford may have to purchase their own water rights with the next 25 years, Hussell said. "We have to be realists," Hussell said. "We're all going to be faced with providing our own water in the future." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA