About 50 West Marin residents -- many of them upset at the prospect of losing the community swimming hole above the Giacomini Dam -- emotionally debated the proposal Tuesday at the Dance Palace.

However, their comments made at a meeting of North Marin Water District directors may have been futile since the State Water Resources Control Board is scheduled to vote Thursday in Sacramento on possibly prohibiting the dam after 1997.

The pond dispute is part of a water-rights order drafted by the state staff with an eye to improving trout and salmon fisheries on Papermill/Lagunitas Creek.

North Marin Water District directors and the Giacomini family have tentatively agreed to a compromise with the state that would allow the dam to be moved upstream to Harold Genazzi's ranch beside the Green Bridge.

However, Genazzi has yet to agree to having the dam on his property. If he eventually does, he told The Light, he would not want people using the dam for a swimming hole the way the Giacominis do.

The present dam has been a popular swimming hole and gathering spot for West Marin children and adults since World War II. Opponents of the dam say it hinders the downstream migration of young fish by creating an abrupt change from fresh to salt water.

The gravel dam, which provides the Giacomini Ranch with irrigation water, is erected at the start of each summer and washes out with the first heavy rain each fall.

North Marin counts on the dam to keep salt water from backing up Papermill Creek and contaminating the Point Reyes water system when flows are low and tides are high.

The system serves Point Reyes Station, Inverness Park, and Olema.

After years of studies and wrangling, the State Water Resources Control Board in July proposed an order that would prohibit the dam's construction after 1996.

In response, NMWD and the Giacominis proposed a compromise that would allow the dam to stay in place through the 1997 irrigation season, and state staff accepted the compromise.

But compromise was not on the minds of many of the residents at Tuesday night's meeting. Both dam critics and people who want to retain the pond made emotional pleas to the North Marin board.

"It was clear during firefighting that the helicopters were dipping there," she said. "If they couldn't go there, they would have had to go miles up the bay."

Warren and her husband Michael Scriven lost their home in this month's wildfire.

When Paul Bickner of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin countered that the dam's proximity to the fire only saved the helicopters about 15 seconds per trip and that the helicopters that carried only 300 gallons of water, he was interrupted by Paradise Ranch Estates resident Paul Bartolini, who shouted, "A 300-gallon helicopter saved my house!"

Later Marin Fire Chief Stan Rowan told The Light the dam actually saved about two to three minutes per helicopter trip. "It gave us a bigger area to draw from," he said.

"Otherwise, we'd have to go further to a water source, and that means longer travel time. When you need drops, that's pretty important. [The dam] turned out to be very handy for us."

And North Marin Manager Chris DeGabriele said he is going to point out the dam's importance in fighting the Inverness Ridge fire when he goes before the state board Thursday.

"We're certainly going to make it known to the state," he said. "The use of the pool behind the dam and its use in fighting the fire has not been fully explored. There's some question as to whether the upstream site would be as useful for that purpose."

"The dam is a place where kids are safe, and they can be part of a world that's very healthy for them instead of in front of the tv," said Paradise Ranch Estates resident Joyce Goldfield.

"To me, kids are more important than any other natural resource we have in this community," she declared to heavy applause.

Point Reyes Station resident John Hulls, who also spoke of the dam's benefit for local children, said he has taken the soccer team he coaches to the dam to cool off after a grueling practice.

"In this litigious society, Waldo [Giacomini] has a great smile and ... always lets the kids swim there," Hulls said. "I'd like to thank him for it."

Pointing to two steep drops on a line graph, Hulls said any decline in the fish population in the last 50 years occurred because of the construction of the Nicasio and Kent Reservoirs -- not because of the small dam of the Giacominis.

"[That decline in the population] is going to happen when you lose 85 percent of the watershed," Hulls said. "Whatever the Giacomini dam does is merely a squiggle in this line here."

When the dam isn't in place during the summer, Papermill/Lagunitas Creek is often reduced to a smattering of stagnant pools and "stinks worse than any sewer I've ever been around," said plumber Jack Long, a resident of the levee road.

Long also noted that without the Giacomini dam, saltwater intrusion would ruin his wells beside the creek, which would destroy his business raising exotic birds.

Perhaps the strongest endorsement of the dam, a 300-signature petition, was not presented at the North Marin meeting, but rancher Rich Giacomini said the petition has been sent to Sacramento in time for Thursday's meeting.

Anne West, longtime Inverness resident and critic of the Giacomini family and their dam, said studies prepared for the Department of Fish and Game and the Army Corps of Engineers have found that the fish population has declined because of the dam.

"This is not my opinion here. This is what I've heard time and again," she said. "Altogether, it's a very bad situation for our declining salmon and steelhead populations."

Speaking about the loss of a popular swimming spot, West said there are other places for people to swim in West Marin.

Tomales Bay Association President Ken Fox echoed West's arguments, saying the environmental consequences of the dam are too strong to overlook.

"I walked across the dam tonight. I appreciate that. But there are greater needs here," he said. "This is what's going to be best for all of us."

Fox said, among other environmental effects, the dam limits the spread of neomycin shrimp, the primary food for sturgeon and starry flounder.

Point Reyes Station resident Terry Nordbye said he appreciates the dam's recreational elements, but still wants it to be taken out.

"I love the kids and dogs and families that hang out there, yet I support the removal of it," he said. "We have been taking and changing the environment for our positions for centuries.

"Let's give it back to the critters and use our superior intellect to figure out how to build our own swimming hole."

Jane Stringer, an Inverness family nurse-practitioner, speculated the dam may cause health problems for some swimmers. "I've treated several people for e. coli and giardia infections they most likely got from swimming at the dam," she said.

"The staff has prepared a draft order which pretty much ignores all the arguments except the ones for the fish," Director Jack Baker said. "I think what we're doing here is beating a dead horse."

However, Director George Amaroli disagreed: "I would like to carry to Sacramento the feeling of what we've heard tonight. I don't think this should be a futile exercise. I think this should be heard."

Manager DeGabriele said North Marin offered its best arguments in support of the dam when the state board held hearings in 1992.

"Our alternatives are to petition the board to reconsider [their recommendation] and if the board does not reconsider, to take it to court," he said. "We don't feel, and our legal counsel concurs, that would not be money ... wisely spent."