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Friday, June 27, 2003
Contact:
Dallas
Boyd
For Immediate Release
Phone: (202) 226-7338
Cell:
(202) 744-7974
Klamath
Basin
Congressmen
Seek Answers From Interior Secretary Over Near Shut-Off of Irrigation
Water
Walden, Herger, Doolittle send letter to Secretary of the Interior Gale
Norton expressing alarm over this week’s close call in the Klamath
Basin
WASHINGTON
,
D.C.
–
U.S.
Congressmen Greg Walden (R-OR), Wally Herger (R-CA), and John
Doolittle (R-CA) sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton
today expressing concern over a series of decisions made in June that
nearly led to the shut-off of irrigation water this week to farmers in
the
Klamath
Basin
of southern
Oregon
and northern
California
. Specifically, the
lawmakers questioned how such a shut-off could be considered so soon
after the Bureau of Reclamation’s (BOR) June 13 change in its forecast
for the 2003 water year from a "dry" water year to a
"below average" water year due to increased late spring inflow
into Upper Klamath Lake.
The letter to
Secretary Norton requests the data and technical information used to
reclassify the type of water year, as well as the scientific process
utilized to ensure reliability and accuracy in decision-making.
The lawmakers also seek to determine whether state or local
officials were afforded the opportunity to review such data prior to the
BOR making a final decision.
“It’s
hard to understand how farmers in the Klamath Basin could be threatened
with a water shut-off when just two weeks ago we had so much water
flowing into the Upper Klamath Lake and a re-classification of the water
year from ‘dry’ to ‘below average,’ as well as increased flows
downstream,” said Oregon Congressman Greg Walden. “This incident
raises questions about the model being used to determine how much water
the Klamath Project receives, in addition to the method of measuring the
lake level. If this problem
could be averted without a water shut-off, it raises questions that need
to be answered about how these decisions are being made.
Was the Bureau’s reclassification of the water year incorrect,
and if so, why can’t we reevaluate the science used to make this
decision? We need to find
out what went wrong and what we can do to make sure this doesn’t
happen again. Thousands of
people’s livelihoods are at stake, and it is critical that the federal
government makes these decisions correctly.”
“Somehow,
even though we have more water this year, it actually means our farmers
could end up getting less? This
is outrageous and simply defies all reason,” said California
Congressman Wally Herger. “Sadly,
this is more evidence that the Endangered Species Act is a runaway
train. We risked another
shutoff of water to our farmers, and the economic harm and serious
expense that such a situation would've caused, over what in the end
amounts to staying within an inch or less of the arbitrarily determined
lake level. Before this kind
of situation can be forced on us again, we must take immediate action to
assess what evidence was utilized to make this potentially harmful
decision.”
"The
arbitrary nature of the decisions being made is completely
unacceptable," said California Congressman John Doolittle.
"I for
one am
determined not to stand by and
allow the lives of my constituents to be manipulated in this manner.
It is my hope that our letter will help bring some clarity and
reasonableness to the situation."
The
full text of the letter to Secretary Gale Norton follows:
June 27, 2003
The
Honorable Gale Norton
Secretary
Department
of the Interior
Room
6151
1849 C Street NW
Washington
,
D.C.
20240
Dear
Madame Secretary:
We are very concerned about
a number of critical issues important to the
Klamath
Basin
in southern
Oregon
and northern
California
and would appreciate your feedback on several of these matters.
On June 13th, 2003, the Bureau of
Reclamation (BOR) changed its forecast for the 2003 water year in the
Klamath Basin from a "dry" water year to a "below
average" water year due to increased late Spring inflow into Upper
Klamath Lake. Less than two weeks later on June 26th,
the BOR was not only asking irrigators to severely curtail water use,
but had initiated plans to cut-off water deliveries entirely through the
end of June in order to meet the more stringent requirements of the
Klamath Project Biological Opinion (BO) due to this reclassification.
The headline the next day in the
Klamath Falls
Herald and News read “Klamath Project Shut Down,” which came
as a shock to the Basin community and to us.
Fortunately, President Bush’s team responded quickly to reverse
this disaster while still operating the Project within the confines of
the law.
We would like to know the data and technical
information that were used to reclassify the type of water year,
including the source(s), as well as the scientific process utilized to
ensure, to the greatest extent possible, reliability and accuracy,
including whether state or local entities or other outside groups were
afforded the opportunity to review that data or otherwise provide an
alternative interpretation prior to the BOR making a final decision.
In addition, we would also like to know whether the local
governments of Klamath, Siskiyou and Modoc counties were notified prior
to the decision to cease water deliveries and what contingency
arrangements have been established to prepare for the possibility of a
similar situation arising when the BOR takes measures to meet the
requirements of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) BO at the end
of July and August? Finally,
are you aware of any other Federal water projects that have contingency
arrangements to address complete project curtailment in the middle of
the irrigation season?
Answers to these questions will help prevent a
recurrence of what happened on the morning of June 25th, when
water users in the Basin were notified that water deliveries might be
completely curtailed in order to avoid violating minimum lake levels for
Upper Klamath Lake (UKL). The
curtailment was contemplated by the BOR because lake levels in UKL
were dropping at a rate that could violate the below-normal lake level
mandated by the BO and recently adjusted by the BOR last week to a level
more than half a foot higher than the "dry" level conditions
in place early last week. Further, the water year designation also
triggered downstream flow releases of an additional 300 cubic feet per
second (cfs) to meet Endangered Species Act requirements for coho
salmon.
As a result of this reclassification to a “below
average” year, irrigators in the Project worked proactively to reduce
diversions eventually dropping demand by 400 cfs. This action was in
addition to the thousands of acres of farmland that were idled as part
of the Klamath Project Water Bank and the strong participation in
on-farm conservation programs authorized by the Environmental Quality
Incentives Program (EQIP) and included in the 2002 Farm bill.
Unfortunately, inflows into UKL, which facilitated the
reclassification of the water year, dropped even faster and as of June
26th, inflows into the lake were at 14% of normal levels,
and, at the writing of this letter, net inflows into the lake had
“zeroed out”.
The culmination of the reclassification and reduction of
flows into UKL almost led to the worst day in the Basin since the
April 6th, 2001
, when BOR announced there would
be no water deliveries for the 2001 water year. Had this
tragedy not been averted an estimated $200 million investment in crops
could have been decimated. In
light of the events that transpired over the last several days, it is
incumbent upon us to ask questions about the scientific process and data
used to reclassify the water year, whether the local governments were
notified about the potential of a temporary water cut-off and what
contingency plans are to avert a similar situation in the coming months.
We appreciate your dedication to resolving the
complicated issue of water allocation in the
Klamath
Basin
and appreciate your attention to this matter. Please let us know
how we might be able to facilitate this request.
We will anxiously await your reply.
Sincerely,
GREG WALDEN
WALLY HERGER
JOHN DOOLITTLE
Congressman Walden represents the 2nd
District of Oregon, which includes 20 counties in southern, central and
eastern
Oregon
. He is a Deputy Whip and a
member of both the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the
Committee on Resources.
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