Money to rebuild a rock wall along the Little Wood River has made it into the final version of a negotiated bill for funding the U.S. Department of Energy and Army Corps of Engineers.

The project was one of several funding requests made by U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, who is a member of the House Appropriations Subcom-mittee on Energy and Water Development as well as part of a combined House and Senate conference committee that produced the negotiated bill. In a written statement Wednesday he said he expects the bill to receive full House and Senate approval later this week.

Among funds targeted for Idaho is $100,000 to start rehabilitation of 1.5 miles of lava-rock walls defining the channel the Little Wood River follows through the city of Gooding. The walls are falling apart, posing a number of safety hazards - including increased risk of flooding.

The sum is less than the $1 million Simpson originally requested for the project. But Simpson aide John Revier told the Times-News that the goal this year is to simply get approval for the Army Corps of Engineers to do the work. Repairing the wall will likely take as much as $9 million over three or four years.

Also slated for approval is nearly $3.9 million, also for the Corps of Engineers, to assist rural Idaho communities with repair, expansion or full replacement of water and wastewater systems. Funds from the program, for example, have been pledged to help the city of Bliss upgrade its aging wastewater system.

In addition, Simpson secured:

• $1.5 million for medical-isotope production at Idaho State University.

• $1 million to expand a geothermal heating system in Boise.

• Continued or increased funding for a number of INL projects, including the Next Generation Nuclear Plant, maintenance of current U.S. reactors and various cleanup activities.