Document text
Butte Falls group will tap into water supply Bottling plant seen as key ingredient to economic plans By Melissa Martin of the Mail Tribune BUTTE FALLS -- Water trucks -- not log trucks -- may soon be rolling out of town now that a citizen group is creating a corporation to bottle and sell water from the town's mountain spring source. $1.6 million town project flows from Ginger Springs BUTTE FALLS -- The town of Butte Falls has plenty of surplus water to sell. An estimated 70,000 gallons of water each day leak from wire-wrapped, wooden pipes laid in 1911 and replacement pipes laid in 1932, said David Wilson, a consulting engineer. Since Butte Falls incorporated in 1911, the town's gravity-fed water system has tapped its supply from Ginger Springs, which flows out of a mountainside about a quarter-mile west of town. Currently, crews are laying 14,000 feet of new pipe, installing about 200 water meters -- the first in the town's history -- and nine new fire hydrants. The $1.6 million water project also includes building a new water treatment facility and a new reservoir. The reservoir and water treatment plant is on Red Hill, the length of a football field from the bottling plant site, making it convenient to lay pipe and draw water from the spring source. The water would be diverted before it's chlorinated, a treatment the town added in 1978 to satisfy federal requirements, said Pete Vorbeck, a public works employee. Ginger Springs has a long record of purity, according to John Neilson of Neilson Research Laboratories Corp. in Medford. "Ginger Springs is a good, high-mountain spring water. It's an excellent idea to bottle it," Neilson told the Mail Tribune last November. A citizen group Tuesday received the blessing of the Town Council to create a nonprofit corporation, form a board of directors and search for funds to build a bottling plant. "We've been waiting for this to happen for so long," said Joyce Hailicka, who represents the Butte Falls Water Commission. She is chair of the Butte Falls Economic Development Commission. The group, which doesn't have a name yet, will file for 501(c)(3) status as a nonprofit corporation. While separate from the town of Butte Falls, the corporation will have the Town Council's support and may share board members. The town's dream of bottling and selling Ginger Springs water moved a step closer to reality last November when Superior Lumber Co. donated a three-acre site to build a bottling plant. A master plan calls for a $1.59 million building with six to eight employees, a museum, conference room, gift shop and a forested landscape. The site is at the bottom of Red Hill, where the town's new water reservoirs will be built. It's also near a park at the state fish hatchery, as well as a walking path that the town hopes to loop around the community. "This establishes the business structure," Hailicka said. "Our original intent was to create infrastructure, create jobs and have profits come back to the town of Butte Falls." The nonprofit corporation in Butte Falls may be unique, said Hanan Bowman, with Rural Development Initiatives, a private, nonprofit organization that provides support for rural communities. He will help Butte Falls find funding. "What's so unusual about this is that Butte Falls was severely hit by timber harvest reductions," Bowman said. "There are very few examples in which a town, and the community as a whole, looked at the situation pro-actively and chose to move forward instead of complaining about the lack of timber." Building a bottling plant and selling the town's abundant water is a plan that could boost the economy without hurting the environment or the quality of life in Butte Falls, Bowman said. Bowman works with other cities in Southern Oregon that have formed private corporations. In Gold Beach, a group called 20-10 searches for potential development projects along the south coast. And in Sisters, the Community Action Team works for affordable housing, business recruiting and retention and infrastructure. "What's different in Butte Falls is that this nonprofit is being formed for this sole purpose -- developing a water bottling plant," Bowman said. "But as it evolves, it won't be restricted to water bottling. As profits emerge, it can use its dollars for other projects," Bowman said. Profits would be spent on community projects determined by the board of directors with Town Council and public input. "When this works, the Butte Falls water bottling plant will be a model of a small community pulling itself up by its bootstraps,'' Bowman said. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA