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Gold Hill seeks federal help with dam removal File photo In this file photo from November 1999, Craig Harper of Rogue Valley Council of Governments stands on the head gate of Gold Hill�s diversion dam. The federal government wants the city to remove the dam to save migrating fish; the city wants guaranteed funding and survival of the city�s water system. Diversion dam judged a hazard to fish passage By Melissa Martin GOLD HILL � The city is asking the federal government for a park, bike path and pedestrian bridge in exchange for moving the city�s water supply out of a canal that biologists call a fish trap. Gold Hill is concerned about who will pay the estimated $750,000 it might cost to move the city�s intake pump, as well as what will happen to a 10-foot-deep, half-mile-long hole in the ground that will be left when the diversion dam is removed from the Rogue River. "We need to be cooperative with their goal and they in turn need to be cooperate with our goals," said Steve Straughan, a retired labor negotiator who is helping Gold Hill write a contract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Lottery funds available Gold Hill and any other local government or non-profit agency that wants a piece of the lottery pie has until Oct. 9 to submit their projects to the Regional Investment Board. The 17-member board creates a "Needs and List Inventory" and submits it to state agencies that give grant money. One of those agencies is the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department, which will distribute about $20 million in lottery money this year. Pam Green, project manager for Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development Inc., mailed applications to 150 agencies, cities and other non-profit groups. Groups must answer the questions about their projects and return the forms by Oct. 9. Call SOREDI for more information at 773-8946. "We don�t want to get their job done and then have them abandon us," Straughan said. "We�re willing to trust them, but also hold them accountable." The city of Gold Hill added Straughan to an engineering team working with the Rogue River Basin Fish Passage Technical Committee, made up of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Bureau of Reclamation and National Marine Fisheries, among other agencies. Biologists have listed Gold Hill�s diversion dam as the No. 2 barrier to fish passage on the Rogue River, second only to Savage Rapids Dam. At the same time, the city of Gold Hill draws its drinking water from the canal to serve its 1,200 residents. The Bureau of Reclamation is designing a new intake for Gold Hill�s water system, moving it about a half-mile upstream. Plans call for closing the head gate, drying up the canal and eventually notching or removing the L-shaped concrete dam in the river. "Nobody seems to want to talk about the additional money it will take to operate and maintain these new facilities," said engineer Bill Ryan, of CH2M Hill. His firm is helping this community, which has the lowest income base in Jackson County yet pays one of the highest water rates. "The people of Gold Hill can�t afford to double their water rates to pay for the additional pumping costs" of getting the water from the new intake to the city�s treatment plant, Ryan said. The Gold Hill City Council last week wrote a letter promising cooperation in exchange for guaranteed funding and the healthy survival of the city�s public water system. The city also wants to turn the dried-up canal into a wetlands for bird habitat, extend the bike path, build a park and pedestrian bridge stretching to the Rogue River and remove the abandoned powerhouse that was built in 1944 to generate electricity for a cement plant. It�s the city�s job � not the federal government�s � to find funding for the projects, said Chuck Korson of the Bureau of Reclamation�s office in Bend. The Rogue Valley Council of Governments will help Gold Hill in its search for funding. Gold Hill�s project is at the top of the list of the agencies that distribute lottery dollars and other grant money, said Larry Menteer, Jackson County water master. However, Gold Hill needs to move quickly to avoid state fines for water rights violations, he warned. "There are several violations taking place in that canal," Menteer said. "The city needs to take responsibility because the city owns it." The fish passage team meets again at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 14, at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife office, 1495 E. Gregory Road, Central Point. City subject to fines GOLD HILL � State and federal agencies could fine Gold Hill for violating both the Endangered Species Act and its state water right permit. The violations occur in a canal that serves as the city�s sole source of drinking water. Last year, state divers counted 40 to 60 juvenile steelhead that slipped through the narrow opening of the Gold Hill diversion dam head gate and into a channel that biologists call a fish trap. Water flows at about 130 cubic feet per second through the head gate and into the canal, but Gold Hill�s water right is only 3 cfs. The state could fine Gold Hill up to $1,000 a day for violating its water right, but it�s unlikely to happen because the city is seeking a solution, said Bruce Sund, assistant regional manager for the Southwest Region Oregon Water Resources Department. "We strive for voluntary compliance and we�ll keep working with Gold Hill," Sund said. But if negotiations fall apart, the town may face civil penalties from the state as well as from the National Marine Fisheries Services. "There are other places in the country where regulatory agencies haven�t been quite so lenient," said Craig Harper of the Rogue Valley Council of Governments. For example, National Marine Fisheries Services fined the Methow Valley (Wash.) Irrigation District $50,000 for allowing steelhead past intake screens. The fine was canceled after the irrigation district hired a scientist who documented that the fish were rainbow trout and coming from other creeks feeding into the Methow and Twist rivers, not from the irrigation district�s intake, said district director Michael Gage. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. 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