Klamath Water and Power Agency/KWAPA meeting 8/31/11. Agenda HERE
 

Tulelake Irrigation District will be developing an On-Project Ground Water Management Plan. Public Hearing  August 29th, 9 a.m. This is a mandate in the KBRA. FOLLOWED BY AB 3030. "They must publish the resolution of intention." KBC NOTE: TID put this notice in the Herald and News amongst the legal section in back of the paper. It was not send to landowners or irrigators.

Punching holes in the concrete; The Northwest is about to witness the largest dam removals in U.S. history, posted to KBC 8/28/11, by The Oregonian Editorial Board. " the dams coming down now have no fish passage and generate enough electricity to power a few thousand homes." KBC NOTE: The Klamath dams alone targeted to be destroyed serve 70,000 households. This is more than "a few thousand homes;" the Oregonian knows better.

Sent from Frank Tallerico Aug. 28, 2011. Psalm 43 Verse 5: Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in GOD; for I shall still praise Him, the help of my countenance and my GOD.

Do the crime, pay for the sublime? Polluters' fines benefit Oregon watershed and habitat restoration. Oregonian 8/26/11. "Clean Water Services -- $15,232 for water quality trading projects and to reduce nutrient loads in the Upper Klamath Basin of Klamath, Lake and Jackson counties."

PUBLIC MEETING: Initial Meeting of the On-Project Plan Advisory Committee (OPPAC) for the KBRA 8/24/11.

Oregon Set to Enact Strict, New Water Quality Standards to Satisfy EPA, Tribes, Marten Law 8/23/11. "The new standard for fish consumption is 10 times higher than the previous one, and assumes Oregonians will eat 23 eight-ounce meals of Oregon caught fish per month. That rate of consumption translates into dramatically lower permissible discharge levels for 106 pollutants...which in turn could dramatically increase treatment costs for municipal sewage treatment, agriculture, and many manufacturing industries, including paper mills at a time when those industries are already struggling."

Come to the summit in Scott Valley. August 23 with government agencies invited to discuss Scott Valley water use. Department of Fish and Game agents have trespassed onto private property, threatened and intimidated ranchers and farmers to try to make them relinquish their water and adjudicated water rights. Citizens there vow to just say "no." they are ready to do whatever it takes to protect their Constitutional rights. POW: Scott Valley Protect Our Water

James Buchal, Portland attorney and salmon expert, gave a presentation in Klamath Falls on the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement in 2008. He posted the video on his website HERE . Go HERE for his wealth of information on salmon.

More wilderness for Crater Lake? H&N, posted to KBC 8/21/11. Proposed "more than 500,000 acres..."

Looking Back in Klamath Basin history, 1991, and 2001, H&N, posted to KBC 8/21/11. 1991: "The Oregon Natural Resources Council has asked a federal judge to halt any operations of the Klamath Reclamation Project that may endanger the fish..."
2001:  "On one side of the fence stood 11 federal marshals, somber and quiet, their eyes concealed by sunglasses and their navy blue blazers buttoned up despite the hot weather. On the other side stood more than 150 farmers, business owners, and general citizens, angry and at times loud, their options uncertain and their patience worn thin."

Little hope in delisting endangered sucker, letter to H&N by Warren Haught, posted to KBC 8/21/11

Psalm 43 Verses 1-4

Tulelake Irrigation District public hearing on groundwater management plan 8/19/11

Klamath River, Understanding  Fall Chinook Salmon Allocations, by Ronnie M. Pierce 1998.

U.C. Davis Professors Peter Moyle and Jeffery Mount to USFWS and Calif. Resources Agency regarding Klamath dam removal studies, 11/16/07, Posted to KBC 8/19/11. "We think that existing studies (primarily in the ‘gray’ literature) are inadequate to provide reliable predictions about the effects of dam removal. Most notably, there has not been a systematic, comprehensive assessment of the impact of dam removal on native fish populations of the Klamath, particularly salmonids. This is surprising because the primary motivation for removal of the dams is improvement of these populations."

Tribes Get $245K For Job Creation. OPB 8/18/11 (Includes Klamath Tribes)

* We just discovered a new website, http://klamathnews.net/blog You will find voices of local citizens on important issues like power, water, the KBRA. There is room for your voice.

KWAPA meeting Aug. 31, 2011 Agenda: Tulelake groundwater metering, KBRA, domestic well program, On Project Plan (of KBRA), ...

Future Electric Rates, by Klamath County Commissioner Linthicum 8/18/11.

Calif. Dept of Fish and Game, DFG, met with Scott Valley Irrigators Aug 16. Here are comments by ranchers and articles on the encounter, pienpolitics 8/18/11

Delphi Technique was used by DFG on Aug. 16, 8/18/11. "RiverKeepers chose the wrong year to blame irrigators for Patterson Creek going dry. Irrigation stopped, when the water flow was still extremely high and irrigation was NOT occurring, where your evil youtube depicts dead juvenile fish. You are so full of lies, you likely planted the dead fish. I have reported such before on the Klamath, when neighbors saw Karuks planting fish to die, when the Klamath River level dropped." KBC NOTE: Tucker is Karuk Tribe spokesman. He was on the steering committee of Klamath Riverkeeper before it spun off from umbrella group Klamath Forest Alliance, and he’s presently on the board. He was schooled by Green Corp as an environmental organizer, and was affiliated with international dam removal movements. First the goal is destroying Klamath River hydro dams, and next the Snake and Columbia River hydrodams.

Rerun: Tribes dammed Klamath, Klamath Courier by Liz Bowen posted to KBC 6/2/05 "1851 journal states Klamath River ran putrid from dead salmon."

DFG reaches out to Siskiyou County ranchers, farmers; agency seeks protection of coho salmon, Redding Searchlight 8/18/11, followed by comment by POW editor.

Coho coordination, Siskiyou Daily News 8/17/11. "...NMFS gives little credit for the work that is already being done. The plan doesn’t provide an alternative to dam removal, blames low flows on the agricultural community, erodes property and water rights, and offers very little advice as to what needs to be done to make recovery possible."

DFG Goes Fishing For Coho Salmon Water, A News Cafe, posted to KBC 8/17/11. (note from Mike King, Fresno, "post it on KBC along with my comment "DON'T GIVE THEM A DAM DROP OR THEY'LL EXPECT IT EVERY YEAR PLUS MORE". They're trying to set a pattern to steal more water.

Klamath: 10 Years Later - Part 4, Endangered Species Act Battles Arouse Producers to Action, Aug 18, 2011. "Don't, whatever you do, don't, allow the agencies and NGOs to convince you to alienate your neighboring resource users...Here, our farm leaders have the water fees of the constituents to make deals with the agencies and NGOs, against the wishes of the majority of the citizens." Siskiyou County, Calif., Supervisor Marcia Armstrong said anything short of repealing the ESA isn't enough to turn the tide in the region."Suddenly, private property must satisfy the public interests of species well-being before the property can be used by its owner.."
Klamath: 10 Years Later - Part 3, Farmers Hurt by ESA Face Water Quality Challenge, Aug 17, 2011. "The TMDL for uplands in the Upper Klamath Lake watershed calls for a reduction of 18% in external phosphorous loading. But just 4% of total external loads come from agriculture pumping; this drives fears that the burden to improve water quality could fall disproportionately on agriculture's shoulders."
Klamath: 10 Years Later - Part 2 Agriculture Faces Higher Electricity Costs, Progressive Farmer 8/16/11"There has been a massive push for federal funding to help project irrigators be more efficient with water, by installing high-pressure sprinkler systems and other equipment, since 2001. Such systems use less water, but require more electricity; there is an increasing need for energy at a time when dams are likely to be removed. Without the dams, power supplies become scarce, Addington said, putting upward pressure on prices....One of the criticisms of the KBRA is that it establishes water rights in the project although basin-wide adjudication is ongoing, Addington said."
Klamath: 10 Years Later - Part 1: Northwest Agriculture Remains Divided on Water Resources, Progressive Farmer 8/15/11.

PUBLIC MEETING: Initial Meeting of the On-Project Plan Advisory Committee (OPPAC) for the KBRA 8/24/11. KBRA PAGE 70 Says:  "In development of the On-Project Plan, KWAPA shall consider and evaluate the following measures for short-term, intermittent, long-term, and permanent application to meet the purpose of the plan: conservation easements, forbearance agreements, conjunctive use programs, efficiency measures, land acquisitions, water acquisitions, groundwater development, groundwater substitution, other voluntary transactions, water storage, and any other applicable measures..." HERE for on KBRA On Project Plan

Tulelake Irrigation District will be developing an On-Project Ground Water Management Plan. Public Meeting August 29th, 9 a.m. This is not a California Law, but mandate in the KBRA.
* HERE for Measures Related to Groundwater For the purpose of the On-Project Plan in the KBRA, and No Adverse Impact.
* Engineers hired by KWAPA / Klamath Water And Power Agency are MBK Engineering and Dan Keppen and Associates. Dan Keppen is Family Farm Alliance director, and former director of Klamath Water Users Assoc., KWUA
* Dan Keppen addressed Senate on Klamath Basin water transfers, Secure Water Act and Water Conservation Initiative 3/16/10. "Another area of focus in our report will include water markets and transfers, where we would like to provide examples of successful efforts, identify where there are impediments to success, and describe where adverse impacts negated such benefits. These studies will help form the framework for Alliance policy on water transfers, which will be advanced in the agricultural / urban / environmental water sharing coalition we are involved with in the Colorado River Basin. We are already assembling work for transfer programs undertaken in the Central Valley (CALIFORNIA), in the Klamath Basin (CALIFORNIA / OREGON), in Southern California, and along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains (COLORADO).”