Mail Tribune News - State likely to turn off GPID spigot

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State likely to turn off GPID spigot GRANTS PASS -- In the fight over Savage Rapids Dam, the state is expected to shut off in mid-October the extra water given to the Grants Pass Irrigation District to ensure its canals remain full. Oregon's Water Resources Commission is expected to deny the district's request to extend the supplemental water right for 52 cubic feet per second past the Oct. 15 expiration date, said Martha Pagel, director of the Oregon Water Resources Department. The commission meets today in Roseburg. Dennis Becklin, the irrigation district's chairman, reacted angrily to the report. "The whole state ought to be disgusted in this abusive conduct," said Becklin. The commission granted the extra water in 1994 on condition that the district correct fish-passage problems at Savage Rapids Dam. The commission last year took steps to shut off the extra water because the district had failed to follow through on an agreement to remove the dam and replace it with pumps. But the district won a stay of the cancellation from the Oregon Court of Appeals, allowing irrigation to go on this summer. Becklin objected the action was being taken while the court stay was in place. The National Marine Fisheries Service and the state of Oregon have pressed to remove the dam as an obstacle to coho salmon, which are a threatened species. A lawsuit brought by NMFS to shut down dam operations is pending.   Mail Tribune Copyright �  The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA