Feds to address Klamath water woes

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- Based on a bountiful snowpack and a National Academy of Sciences review that threw doubt on the need to reserve water for fish, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said Wednesday it expects to make full irrigation deliveries to Klamath Basin farmers this year.

The announcement came in a document known as a biological assessment of operations of the Klamath Reclamation Project irrigation system for the next 10 years.

It is the first step in the process of weighing the needs of fish protected by the Endangered Species Act against irrigation water controlled by the federal government.

"This presents an innovative and environmentally responsible approach to the competing water needs in the Klamath Basin," said Reclamation Commissioner John Keys in a prepared statement.

"Reclamation is committed to a collaborative approach in the Klamath Basin to meet the requirements of the ESA, our contracts with water users, and our tribal trust responsibilities."

The document must be reviewed by biologists for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for impacts on endangered Lost River suckers and shortnosed suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, the Klamath Project's primary reservoir. The National Marine Fisheries Service will go over the plan to see how it affects threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River, the lake's natural outlet.

The agencies are supposed to issue their biological opinions in time for irrigation season to begin April 1.

Tense confrontation

Faced with a drought last year, Fish and Wildlife and NMFS set minimum water levels for the fish that left little for the Klamath Project, resulting in sharply reduced irrigation deliveries. That set off a tense confrontation between farmers and the federal government.

A review of the action by the National Academy of Sciences later questioned the scientific justification of the minimum water levels set for fish.

Based on that review, the bureau set lower minimum water levels this time for endangered suckers in Upper Klamath Lake as well as threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River.

Irrigation diversions

In providing water to farmers, the bureau said it could not be the only entity in the Klamath Basin required to provide for endangered fish, when the water problems were widespread. Specificially, it cited irrigation diversions for ranches and the Upper Klamath National Wildlife Refuge reducing the runoff into Upper Klamath Lake.

The plan was bittersweet news for farmers, because it does not provide an immediate guarantee of water.

"Nobody can get a bank loan till we get a guarantee of water," said fertilizer dealer Bob Gasser, a spokesman for the Klamath Water Users Association. "The banks have said unless you have a well, we're not giving loans. There will be tremendous problems this year getting loans."

Disaster for fishers

The plan is a disaster for commercial salmon fishers and other economic interests downstream, said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations.

"They are plunging the entire downriver into permanent drought, offering in some cases less than one-third of what fish need for minimal survival," Spain said. "This is a thinly veiled attempt to pass the buck to the fish and wildlife agencies and would never pass muster in the courts."

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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