By Andrea Calcagno & Associated Press
September 4, 2009
GOLD HILL, Ore. - Contracting bids are in for the Gold Ray Dam removal project.
Jackson County Roads and Parks set a deadline of 4:30 p.m. Friday afternoon for bids.
Officials say the county received five bids, all of which fell around the project's five million dollar budget. Jackson County has received five-million dollars in federal stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act towards removing the dam. However, in order to use the money, the dam must be out by next October.
County officials were concerned bids may be too high given the strict time limit.
"From now until October 31st of next year the permits, the environmental work, the studies from the sediment, the design to remove the dam and the dam removal, all have to be completed by Oct. 31st if the project is going to go forward," said John Vile, Jackson County Director of Roads and Parks.
Jackson County commissioners have yet to vote on whether to remove the 105-year-old dam that was decommissioned as a hydropower facility in 1972.
On Thursday, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission visited the dam and said it is throwing its support behind its removal. Jackson County owns the dam and doesn't need the OFWC's approval to remove it. However, WaterWatch Staff Attorney Bob Hunter, who led efforts to remove the Rogue River's Savage Rapids Dam, says it helps to have the commissioners on board."It's good to have the commission come out and take a look and understand the problems at the dams so they can lend their support to this project that hopefully will be underway soon," Hunter said.
Removal of the dam cleared a hurdle earlier this month when tests revealed insignificant levels of contaminants in the sediment behind the structure. Higher levels of contaminants could have meant that some or all of the sediment would have to be removed before the dam could be breached.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife considers Gold Ray Dam one of the 10 worst dams for fish-passage in the state. The dam is last concrete impediment over 157 miles of the Rogue between Cole Rivers Hatchery and the Pacific.
