Senate Bill 987 would let the Legislature, rather than the Water Resources Commission, decide whether Savage Rapids Dam and others should be removed from Oregon's waters. House Bill 3346 would require sediment studies before any dam is removed.

Both bills go to the Senate, the first returning for action on House amendments that exempt illegal and some private dams from the requirement for legislative approval.

Savage Rapids Dam, which the Grants Pass Irrigation District operates on the Rogue River, was never mentioned during the debate on Senate Bill 987.

Dam opponents say the 78-year-old structure on the line between Jackson and Josephine counties is a barrier to fish, particularly the coho salmon that the federal government has declared a threatened species.

Supporters say fish passage over the dam has been improved, though the National Marine Fisheries Service has filed an enforcement action against the district.

The state Water Resources Commission has revoked the district's supplemental water right from the Rogue because it failed to follow through on a 1994 pledge to work toward the dam's removal. The district has appealed the order to the Oregon Court of Appeals.

Only one dam, the Valsetz Dam on the South Fork of the Siletz River, has been removed under authority of the Water Resources Commission.

House Bill 3346, though requested by GPID, may have no direct effect on the Savage Rapids controversy because a federally funded study of sediment loads is pending.

Two related House bills are headed to a vote of the Senate after they were cleared Wednesday night by the Senate Public Affairs Committee.

House Bill 3065 would guarantee GPID a supplemental water right from the Rogue without tying it to the dam's removal. House Bill 2600 would exempt GPID and similar districts from having to obtain water rights if the amount of water they lose from seepage is not specified in state permits.

Whether any of the bills will become law is questionable.

Gov. John Kitzhaber vetoed a similar water-rights bill for GPID four years ago. Under threat of a second veto, the Legislature converted a bill for approval of dam removals into a study of Savage Rapids Dam.