September 19, 2006
By STEVE KADEL
H&N Staff Writer
CHILOQUIN - Modoc Point Irrigation District landowners will decide the fate
of endangered suckers on the Sprague River this week.
District members are voting on
whether to dismantle the Chiloquin Dam, which blocks passage of fish up the
river. Ballots are due Friday, and results will be officially released
Monday during a 7 p.m. meeting at the Crater Lake Real Estate office on
Highway 97.
A cooperative agreement
If the vote favors dam removal, the district's board of directors will meet
Oct. 2 to sign a cooperative agreement with Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The U.S. Department of Interior would pay to remove the dam and for costs of
building a new pumping station along the Williamson River a quarter-mile
upstream from the Williamson bridge. A pipeline would be built to carry
water to the irrigation district's main canal.
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., estimated the cost of removing the dam and
replacing it with a pump station at $15 million to $16 million.
Mitigation fund
In addition, the U.S. Department of Interior would give $2.4 million to the irrigation district. Interest on that “mitigation fund” would pay all costs of operating, maintaining and repairing the new pump station.
The agreement comes after two years of federal study of
options to help Sprague River suckers. A fish ladder was considered, but was
rejected as being less effective than removing the 92-year-old dam.
The proposed agreement maintains the irrigation district's water rights. The
district also is free of liability for any endangered species “taking”
as long as the station is operated and maintained within its design
specifications, according to the agreement.
District officials said removing the dam relieves them of “huge
liability” of injury or death by people using it as a recreation site.
“The dam and its environs have been
a recreation ‘hang-out' for the community of Chiloquin for four
generations,” district officials said. “The structure was not intended
to be a water slide, and all the efforts to secure the facility have
failed.”
A year ago, irrigation district members voted to continue talks with the BIA
over the dam's removal. The vote was 44-35 in favor of proceeding.
Landowner votes
Each landowner had one to three votes, based on the amount of land he or she
owned. Forty-seven landowners, holding 79 votes, turned in ballots. Another
39, with 40 votes, did not.
Ballots were mailed to 68 landowners for the current election, district secretary Berniece Etchevers said. Collectively they have 103 votes.