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Butte Falls will stop leaks New water system likely this summer By MELISSA MARTIN BUTTE FALLS -- The Town Council is expected to seek bids next month for its new, $1.63 million water system. Residents can expect construction equipment and torn-up streets this summer as crews lay 12,300 feet of water lines, build a 500,000-gallon reservoir, add seven fire hydrants and install 186 water meters. Butte Falls will pay for the project with an $829,000 loan and a $828,900 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development. The USDA is expected to approve the engineering report by HGE Inc. of Coos Bay and write contract documents so the city can award the job to the lowest bidder, says David Wilson, a Jacksonville consultant hired by Butte Falls. The new water system is long-awaited, town officials say. Water use in Butte Falls averages 389 gallons a day per capita, twice the 185-gallon average for Pacific Northwest households, according to an HGE report. Officials think more than 70,000 gallons per day are leaking from pipes that were laid in 1932. Since 1911, the town's gravity-fed system has tapped its supply from Ginger Springs, which flows out of a mountainside about a quarter-mile west of town. "There's so much water loss, you can't believe it, because of the old pipes," Wilson says. Besides replacing leaking pipes, the new water system will help Butte Falls keep track of individual water use. The town will have water meters for the first time, Wilson says. Currently, people pay a flat rate, which has increased from $14 to $28 per month over the past two years. The federal grant requires that local water rates match the state average of $32. "The idea of the grant is to reduce user water rates," says Wilson, a retired USDA loan specialist. "If the grant didn't help pay for the new water system, water rates would be exorbitant." Butte Falls will be saving so much water when the leaks are gone that the Town Council hopes to build a bottling plant and sell Ginger Springs water, Wilson says. This is not the first time Butte Falls has received a federal grant for water system improvements. The town built a 200,000-gallon reservoir for water storage in 1974. Wilson worked with Butte Falls on that project during the 22 years he spent as local manager of the Farmers Home Administration, now called Rural Development. He also worked with water and sewer projects in Phoenix, Talent, Shady Cove, Eagle Point, Rogue River and Gold Hill. "We helped an awful lot of small towns across the United States with these programs," Wilson says. Since retiring in Southern Oregon in 1995, Wilson has been working as a consultant for Manzanita, Oakland, Shady Cove and Butte Falls. In other action Tuesday, the Butte Falls Town Council moved forward on a plan to hire an interim police officer for six months. The mayor will form a committee to work with Talent's police department in the search. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA