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Irrigation ditch breach endangers Ore. salmon eggs

The Columbian
Published: October 3, 2011, 5:00pm

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — Biologists in Southern Oregon say millions of spring chinook salmon eggs are at risk in the upper Rogue River because an irrigation ditch failed over the weekend.

The Medford Mail Tribune says (http://bit.ly/nN1EyA ) a breach in a nearly 100-foot piece of the earthen ditch Sunday morning sent water surging over a clay hillside and into a tributary of the Rogue. What caused the breach is unknown.

Biologists are checking to see whether the clay settled out and covered the new eggs, cutting off their water supply and killing them. The eggs would be spared if the clay stayed in suspension and washed downstream.

The vast majority of the Rogue basin’s spring chinook spawning grounds are in the tributary and the part of the Rogue just downstream of its mouth.

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Information from: Mail Tribune, http://www.mailtribune.com/

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