By Ron Brown
 
June 23, 2009
 
NEAR GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A pipeline blowout has left some 2,000 water users in the Grants Pass Irrigation District temporarily without water.
 
The shutdown of the Tokay Canal System is needed to repair the blown pipe, that also badly damaged a park access road over the weekend. The 36-inch steel irrigation pipe corroded through Sunday, and washed away the access road to Tom Pierce Park. Several park visitors were trapped until road crews could open up one lane.
 
"A culvert of that size gets a hole, it doesn't take a whole lot... and there's no telling how long it was slowly trickling. And once it starts going you're losing asphalt and everything else! It goes pretty quickly then," Josephine County Public Works Director Rob Brandes said.
 
GPID Manager Dan Shephard says it will take a week or more to make the repairs needed to restore flows to the canal system. The district is currently receiving bids to repair the pipe and the road to the park.