Document text
Bill could solve struggle over dam Wyden, Smith introduce $22 million proposal By Bill Kettler A $22.2 million bill introduced in Congress Monday could mark the beginning of the end of a 13-year struggle over the fate of Savage Rapids Dam. The bill, sponsored jointly by Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith, would provide $13.5 million to remove the aging dam and install pumps to provide water for the Grants Pass Irrigation District. The proposal also would pay the irrigation district $3.7 million for electricity to run the pumps and provide $5 million for riparian restoration upstream from the dam and recreational improvements along the river. The dam provides irrigation water to homes and ranches in Josephine County and western Jackson County. Conservationists have sought its removal because it impedes salmon and steelhead migration in the Rogue River. Irrigators feared loss of the dam would destroy the irrigation district, because they could not raise the money to install pumps that would be needed to deliver water if the dam were removed. No action is expected on the bill before Congress adjourns. People on both sides of the controversy said they hope it will move rapidly through the next session of Congress because it has support from Wyden, a Democrat, and Smith, a Republican. "The value in introducing it now is to have a bill out there that shows commitment and intent," said Bob Hunter, of WaterWatch, a conservation group that has long worked for removal of the dam. He called the proposal "the biggest step we can take to restoring salmon and steelhead on the Rogue River." "It�s the target we�ve all been working for," said Don Greenwood, president of the irrigation district�s board of directors. "We�re all on the same wave length and we�re all on the same page." Greenwood said the bill assures water for irrigators because it requires the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to certify the pumps are functioning properly before the dam is removed. The irrigation district, environmentalists and sport fishing interests have been meeting among themselves and with legislators since April, when members of the irrigation district voted to remove the dam. Greenwood said legislators were willing to find a solution that allowed the irrigation district to remain intact while removing the 79-year-old dam to improve fish migration and enhance fish habitat upstream. Greenwood said even if the bill sails through the next session of Congress several years will pass before the dam disappears. "If we can get the pumps installed by 2004 or 2005, that�s about as fast as these things go." The proposal could provide a model for solving other natural resource issues, said Liz Hamilton, director of the Northwest Sport Fishing Association. "This is the kind of approach to natural resource problem-solving that we don�t see enough of in Oregon," she said. Hamilton said the groups found a solution because they sat down together and asked everybody what they needed. "The irrigation district needed water. The fish needed the dam removed. How do you accommodate the needs of both sides?" She said the proposed solution would give the irrigation district a modern water pumping system that it could not have afforded on its own. "That probably wouldn�t have happened if it weren�t for the salmon." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.