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Regional water project may take until 2001 ends TALENT -- Land purchase negotiations and final design plans may push the completion date for the Talent-Ashland-Phoenix water intertie to the end of 2001. That's one year later than was first estimated by the city of Talent, which has been under a uilding moratorium since February 1997. The cities are closing in on a site for a regional pump station on Samike Road in Medford and a new Talent water reservoir on Belmont Road. The city of Phoenix is negotiating with the Southern Oregon University Foundation to site Phoenix's water reservoir on land owned by the university southeast of the Petro Center. The actual construction of six miles of 24-inch pipeline from Medford to Talent along Highway 99 will take a year, said TAP project manager Bob Schneider of Montgomery Watson Engineering. In addition, Talent is still finalizing plans for its internal water distribution system. One option recommended by Montgomery Watson is to extend the water intertie through town to the site of the planned new reservoir on Belmont Road. Talent will need to enlarge its water distribution pipeline through town in 10 years when projected water demands will exceed the capacity of the current water distribution system, according to Schneider. "We don't have to build this now," said Schneider. "But it will save money to do it now." The additional cost of extending the line and building a pump station that could serve both shland and Talent is estimated at $1.6 million. Talent is asking whether Ashland wants to participate in the extension at a cost of at least $450,000. Ashland has already committed to participate in the project by installing a larger-capacity pipe from Medford to Talent at an estimated cost of $1.22 million. Ashland public works director Paula Brown estimates that if the City Council agrees to fund the longer pipeline, it will cost the city a total of $1,485,000, just $265,000 more that originally estimated. Brown will update the council on the subject at today's study session. While the Ashland City Council has agreed to participate in the TAP project, Talent's request may prove controversial because some in the community see the additional water source as opening the door to uncontrolled growth. Ashland officials project that they will have enough water to meet the demands of a growing population through 2020, if people conserve water and growth averages 1.5 percent. City Councilman Don Laws said he voted to participate in the water intertie only as a potential emergency backup system to the city's supply from Ashland Creek. He's hoping that in 20 years, new technology will give the city more ways to use the water it already has. "I have no idea whether we'll ever go ahead with connecting (to the intertie)," said Laws. A decision from Ashland could be crucial to the timing of the project. Once the project's scope and the locations of the Phoenix and Talent reservoirs are known, engineering can be finished and the project put out to bid. If the pipeline project is separated from the reservoir and pump station projects and put out to bid this year, Schneider says the intertie could be complete by the spring of 2001. Otherwise, a bid will go out next spring and construction would be complete by the end of 2001. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA