Efforts to remove Gold Ray Dam from the Rogue River leapt forward when a draft study unveiled Thursday revealed no new apparent environmental or economic hurdles for Jackson County to cross.

The draft environmental assessment points toward the proposed $5.6 million removal this year as the most cost-effective way for the county to address fish-passage woes and liability issues for the 106-year-old dam the county has owned since it was decommissioned as a power plant in 1972.

"It appears from the document that dam removal may be the preferred alternative," said John Vial, the county's roads and parks director who is overseeing the project.

The assessment also concludes that buttressing the dam, rebuilding the antiquated fish ladder and restoring the project to its hydropower heyday would cost $69.7 million. But doing so would not provide the fish-passage or liability benefits of removing it, according to the study.

"It's just not indicating that it's a cost-effective solution," Vial said. "That was a big unknown before this point. We hadn't done that analysis. Now we know it's not in the county's financial interest."

The county has entered into a $5.6 million contract with Slayden Construction Group to study and demolish the dam, should Jackson County commissioners approve the project. Removing the dam would restore 157 miles of free-flowing Rogue from the Cole Rivers Hatchery to the ocean.

Rancher Dalton Strauss, who lives upstream of the dam, has opposed its removal and was given a briefing on the draft Wednesday evening.

"It looks to me like it's probably going to happen," Strauss said.

Strauss said he understands the county's need to reduce its financial liability for the dam, but he believes the historical significance of Southern Oregon's first hydropower plant should trump that.

"It's such a historical novelty in our area," Strauss said Thursday. "To a lot of us who've lived here all our lives, I think it's important to retain that history.

"I certainly understand (the county's) predicament," he said. "I have a little problem with their viewpoint about history."

Jackson County officials plan a March 16 public hearing on the draft as part of a 30-day public comment period, but the time and location have not yet been set, Vial said.

All public comments will be amassed with the studies and presented to the commissioners for the ultimate decision on the dam's fate in the first or second week of April, Vial said.

That would put Slayden on the time line to begin work on the removal during the summer window when construction work can be done in streams such as the Rogue.

The assessment also concludes that 16 percent of the 528-acre area immediately upstream of the dam is actual legally defined wetlands, and that much of the area does not contain the native plant species required for wetland status.

However, the study concludes that most or all wetlands lost by the dam's removal likely will be offset by the creation of new wetlands when the river drops as much as 22 feet once the dam's removed.

The assessment concludes that long-term monitoring of wetland loss and rejuvenation is needed.

Vial said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Oregon Department of State Lands have yet to issue a joint permit for construction that would also include wetland mitigation requirements.

The study concludes that it may take up to a decade's worth of winter freshets to cleanse the upstream area of the estimated 400,000 cubic yards of gravel, boulders and other sediment captured at the site since the original timbered dam spanned the Rogue in 1904.

The project's core funding is from a $5 million federal stimulus grant the county received last year, and the removal must be completed by the end of this year to qualify for that money.

The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board has chipped in another $1 million.

Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail at mfreeman@mailtribune.com.