Commissioners vote to remove Gold Ray Dam

The Jackson County Board of Commissioners voted this morning to move forward with removing 106-year-old Gold Ray Dam from the Rogue River this summer, saying the financial burden for keeping it is too great to bear.

In a unanimous vote minutes ago in Medford, the three commissioners formally chose dam removal as the preferred alternative for an environmental assessment expected to be finished later this month.

By selecting dam removal, NOAA-Fisheries can finish the study and the county can garner the final state and federal permits to begin removing the dam and the abandoned powerhouse upstream of Gold Hill in mid-June.

If completed in late summer as planned, the project will restore 157 miles of free-flowing Rogue for the first time since the Ray brothers tamed the river to create the region's first hydropower plant in 1904.

The $5.6 million project is funded by a $5 million federal stimulus grant and a $1 million grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board.

The dam and powerhouse were decommissioned by Pacific Power when it deeded the structures to the county in 1972. If the county does not remove the dam, it is financially liable for improving the dam's antiquated fish ladder that does not meet federal standards.