Hellgate seeks permit to move gravel

Hellgate Jetboat Excursions of Grants Pass has applied for a permit to move gravel in five locations between Grants Pass and Hog Creek on the Rogue River, to ensure safe passage of boats, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced.

Hellgate owner Robert Hamlyn said the company has not had to move gravel for several years, but needs the permit in the event dredging is necessary.

"We apply automatically in order to have the permit in place," Hamlyn said. "We don't have any plans to move gravel in the future unless it's absolutely necessary."

Hamlyn said a prop-washing boat or a small excavator has been used once or twice in the past to move gravel aside at a couple of low bars, but it has been several years since any such work has been done.

The permit would allow dredging of no more than 800 cubic yards (80 truck loads) at Brushy Chutes, Wharton Riffle, Two-Bit Riffle, Hog Creek and Whitehorse Park. The gravel would be pushed into deeper water, not removed, and no more than 200 cubic yards would be moved at any of the locations.

Hellgate takes more than 70,000 people a year down the Rogue, most of them to dinner at the OK Corral between Robertson Bridge and Hog Creek. In the past several years they've shut down around Sept. 20 because of low flows in the river.

In comparison to the 800 cubic yards in the Hellgate permit application, the Grants Pass Irrigation District had to get an emergency permit from the Corps of Engineers in February to move more than 10,000 cubic yards of material.

The material swept in front of irrigation pump intakes at the former Savage Rapids Dam site, following dam removal. Removal involved scooping in the river with an excavator, and driving dump trucks full of sediment most of the way across the Rogue and dumping it downstream
Another 1,000 cubic yards or more had to be moved again at the beginning of irrigation season, GPID Manager Dan Shepard estimated.

An enormous amount of sediment has also been sent downstream to Grants Pass in the past two months from removal of Gold Ray Dam about 25 miles upstream.

Turbidity levels in Grants Pass only recently dropped below 10 nephelometric turbidity units, and the river is still far murkier than normal for this time of year.

A 30-day comment period began today. Comments can be e-mailed to 401publiccomments@deq.state.or.us; mailed to Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Northwest Region, 2020 S.W. Fourth Ave., Portland, OR, 97201-4953, Attn: 401 Water Quality Certification Coordinator; or faxed to 541-229-6957.

For more information, call 503-229-5317.

Public Notice NWP-1995-819/1 is available at www.nwp.usace.army.mil/regulatory/publicnotice.asp.

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Reach reporter Jeff Duewel at 541-474-3720 or jduewel@thedailycourier.com