http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2003/10/15/news/community_news/city01.txt

Report on endangered fish due to be released
by the NRC committee

published Oct. 15, 2003

By DYLAN DARLING

A long-awaited scientific report on endangered and threatened fish in the Klamath River Basin has been completed and is slated to be released this month, officials say.

The report by a committee of the National Research Council is awaiting final approval from the council's parent agency, the National Academy of Science, said Suzanne van Drunick, a senior program officer with the Research Council.

The report will follow up and expand on the committee's preliminary findings released in January 2002. In the preliminary report, the committee concluded that federal biologists had "no substantial scientific justification" for the cut-off of irrigation water to the Klamath Reclamation Project in 2001.

The final report was first expected to be out in late spring, and then mid-summer.

Now it is expected to be published by the end of October.

William Lewis, chairman of the report committee, said the final report has been delayed because the Interior Department wanted the 12-member committee to factor in a Klamath River flow study and a U.S. Geological Survey report on water conditions on the river before the salmon fish kill on the river last fall.

"That slowed us down and we also had to respond to review, which takes time," he said.

The committee report underwent a peer-review by another 12 members of the Research Council and then was given back to the original committee, Lewis said. The committee responded to the critiques of the reviewers and put together the final report.

He said the report will be long, with more than 100 pages.

Around the Basin, all the groups on the many sides of the ongoing water debate are waiting to see the final report.

Jeff McCracken, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokesman in Sacramento, said the groups want to see the final report because it could influence how much water is held in Upper Klamath Lake for endangered suckers, and how much is released to the Klamath River to protect threatened salmon.

"It won't have the weight of a legal opinion," he said. "But I'm sure that the findings of their report could certainly play a large roll in how the (Klamath project) is operated."

In 2001 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service produced a biological opinion for the lake and the National Marine Fisheries Service issued a biological opinion for the river. The opinions established stringent requirements the Bureau had to follow in managing the Klamath Reclamation Project.

The Bureau of Reclamation concluded it could not deliver any water to irrigators in most of the project because of the requirements to protect fish.

"It's going to be the final report on the validity of the scientific data that supported the high lake levels and the high flows down the river in the 2001 biological opinions," McCracken said. "The scientific validity of both of those decisions has come into question."

He said the Fish and Wildlife Service's 2001 opinion raised monthly minimum water levels for Upper Klamath Lake to the highest they had ever been.

Dave Sabo, project manager, said the NRC committee's preliminary report issued in January 2002 changed a lot of things about the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's biological assessment for the Klamath Project. The assessment, finished in 2002, guides operation of the project for a decade.

"We changed (the biological assessment) entirely to reflect their findings," he said.

But the final report expected this month won't change anything for the 2004 irrigation season, Sabo said. To change how the project is managed, the Bureau would need to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

There isn't enough time to go through the consultation process before next irrigation season, he said.

The findings could change things in the long run, starting with the 2005 irrigation season, Sabo said.


On the Net:

http://nationalacademies.org


Reporter Dylan Darling covers natural resources. He can be reached at 885-4471, (800) 275-0982, or by e-mail at ddarling@heraldandnews.com.



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