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SUNNY Temp: 36 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Monday, October 14, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend September 29, 2002 Beall Lane residents want city water without urbanizing By BUFFY POLLOCK for the Mail Tribune CENTRAL POINT — Some county residents along Beall Lane with diminishing well levels and poor water quality are wondering why they can’t tap into the good water their neighbors are getting. After all, a city water line is easily accessible to their 40-year-old neighborhood along the northerly side of Beall. Unfortunately, under rules by the Medford Water Commission, which supplies Central Point with water, homeowners outside city limits must be brought into an urban reserve area before receiving water service. And bad water quality or lack of supply is no reason for exception. Medford Water Commission Manager Ed Olson said county areas all over the Rogue Valley have similar issues and limits must be set. "The commission does not allow cities to serve outside their urban growth boundaries, period," he said. "It’s just the rules we operate under. It’s not a state law. It’s a Medford Water Commission rule. "Water supply is intended to be an urban service — not rural," he added. "If we opened up service to everyone, the question would come up as to who do you serve and who don’t you serve. These people are no different than other people we have around the valley." But becoming part of the city’s urban reserve, which makes an area eligible to eventually become part of the city, requires a lengthy process with various phases — a process started not too long ago but abandoned when neighbors changed their minds over fears their area would quickly become dotted with apartments and subdivisions. "We want water, not apartments," said Charlotte Thomas, who has lived with her husband, Fred, for 35 years in a Green Acres home just off Beall Lane. While the Thomases rarely have issues with water quantity, their water supply contains boron, which is bad for landscaping, laundry and drinking. Since a water line is so close, just a few houses down toward the end of the road, Charlotte Thomas said she couldn’t understand why her small neighborhood couldn’t be added to the very water line supplying the rest of Beall. "As long as you were paying for (the water), what difference would it matter?" she said. "Maybe we could even pay a little more and give the city people a break." While most of the neighbors are leery of becoming part of the city, Green Acres homeowner Jeff Pauley is one who hopes to eventually be included. Pauley bought his home in 1996 but soon found out that redrilling a former 250-foot well to 400 feet still left him without a good water supply. "And it has chloroform in it. I can’t let the kids play in it or drink out of the hose in the yard," said Pauley, who pays $45 every three to four weeks for water delivery from a private water company. While a good well can produce about five gallons per minute, according to Jerry Cordonier of Artesian Drilling in Medford, Pauley’s well can only produce a gallon per minute for 10 minutes daily. His household practices strict conservation and survives on 2,000 gallons of delivered water per month. The family does laundry on weekends at their cabin near Lake of the Woods and takes short showers. Pauley feels that the lack of water, which neighbors say coincided with development of subdivisions along Beall (Stone Creek in the 1980s, and Jackson Creek, Valley Point, Beall Estates and Green Park in the 1990s), is likely caused by changes in surrounding land once homeowners hooked up to a sewer system and roads were built in subdivisions, allowing less water runoff to soak into the ground. Cordonier, who has been drilling wells for 40 years, explained that while it’s not impossible for changes in the land to contribute to water supply fluctuating, an easy answer is next to impossible because of factors like weather change and the depth of water supply in certain areas. "People think a well next door is affecting their well, or a nearby subdivision, but it’s rarely proved," he said. "I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve seen those shallow wells like the ones in that area (of Beall) diminishing in their water supply more often than deeper wells. And if anything will fluctuate because of a weather pattern change, it’s going to be those shallow wells." Ironically, while Pauley and his neighbors may not wind up with city water for some time, the water delivered to Pauley’s home is supplied by the Medford Water Commission through an outlet in Central Point. "I guess you could say I get Medford water, but I get it the hard way," he joked. Buffy Pollock is a free-lance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected] . Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy webmaster feedback A D V E R T I S E R S