Klamath Water Users Association 

U.S. Congressman Greg Walden (R-OR) earlier this week announced that his request for significant funding for the Klamath Basin has been included in the annual Energy and Water Appropriations bill (HR 2754), which is expected to be voted on by the House as early as next week.  Included in the
bill is $2.6 million in refunds to reimburse farmers and ranchers who were required by law to pay for the operation and maintenance of the irrigation system in the Klamath Project in 2001 despite receiving virtually no water as a result of a decision by the federal government.  Walden introduced and
President Bush signed into law last year the legislation that paved the way for the allocation of funds for the reimbursements.

"Securing the funding for these reimbursements for Klamath irrigators who were denied irrigation water in 2001 is the culmination of a long struggle. I've waged to help restore fairness to the Basin after the federal government's disastrous water shut-off," said Walden.  "As I've always said, you shouldn't have to pay for something you don't receive, and that's exactly what the law required of Klamath Basin irrigators who paid for the operation and maintenance of the canals despite receiving almost no water in 2001.  This is great news for the farmers and ranchers of the Basin, and I am proud to have led the effort in Congress to secure these reimbursements on their behalf."

The funding for the operation and maintenance reimbursements was included in a larger sum of $25.4 million in federal funding for the Klamath Basin in the annual Energy and Water Appropriations bill, the majority of which will go toward the operation of the Klamath Project.  This figure represents an increase of $8.9 million over last year's funding level of $16.5 million for the Klamath Project.  Walden requested the increase to $25 million for the Project earlier this year.  The House responded favorably to Walden's increased funding request with a higher-than-expected figure of $26.9 million, while the Senate provided $20.8 million.  After negotiations to iron out the differences between the House and Senate versions, the final figure for the Project was $25.4 million.  Walden requested the increase to further many projects that will enhance water quantity and quality for the benefit of all interests in the Basin.

Walden continued, "In light of the compelling findings in the recent final National Research Council report, including the confirmation that the 2001 water shut-off was scientifically unjustified, there are a number of projects that have long been identified that would benefit farmers, fish and
the local economy.  This increased funding will provide significant assistance to keep a number of sound projects moving.  It's a real win-win, and I'm pleased that the final funding level for the Klamath Project deferred to the higher House figure."

Once the final version of the Energy and Water bill has passed the House of Representatives, it must then be considered by the U.S. Senate before being sent to the President for his signature.  After the appropriations bill has become law, the federal government will begin allocating the federal funds
provided by the measure.  Following the bill's signing by the President, Walden says he will "work diligently" to expedite the delivery of reimbursements to Klamath Basin irrigators.

While Klamath Project irrigators will likely focus on the inclusion of $2.6 million for reimbursement of 2001 expenses in the annual Energy and Water Appropriations bill (HR 2754), the bill also contains other important sections of interest to the Klamath Basin. HR 2754 last week cleared an important conference committee of the U.S. House and Senate, and is expected to be voted upon by the full House as early as next week. HR 2754 contains significant funding and authorization for future funding in the Klamath Basin, and, importantly, also includes a rider to a bill that exempts stored water in New Mexico from use in compliance with Endangered Species Act conditions established for the silvery minnow (see next article).

The funding for the operation and maintenance reimbursements was included in a larger sum of $25.4 million in federal funding for the Klamath Basin in HR 2754, the majority of which will go toward the operation of the Klamath Project.  This figure represents an increase of $8.9 million over last year's funding level for the Project.  The bill also proposes a minimum of $1.5 million for a Klamath Project water bank, and $500,000 for the development of refuge water management plans.

Authorizing provisions that replicate language included by Rep. John Doolittle (CA) in the House version of the Water Resources Development Act were also included in the conference report. Doolittle forwarded this effort for the benefit of Upper Basin water users; these programs are intended to allow irrigation districts and other local public entities an opportunity to obtain $25 million in cost-share funding from a conservation program that will not compete with individual irrigators applying for Farm Bill EQIP funding.

The City of Albuquerque won a huge water victory last week when a U.S. House and Senate Conference Committee approved language in an appropriations bill (HR 2754) that restricts the federal government from using the city's San Juan / Chama water to satisfy provisions of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). This legislative maneuver threatens to bypass an appeals court decision earlier this year that supported the environmentalists’ contention that the water be preserved to protect the Rio Grande silvery minnow, which is protected under the ESA.

This rider - if included in the final report - would have major ramifications for other areas of the west, including Klamath.

In the Middle Rio Grande Basin, the San Juan-Chama project imports water from the lower Colorado River Basin for storage and ultimate delivery to contractors. The plaintiff environmental groups argue that the water must be released downstream for the listed Rio Grande Silvery Minnow. These groups prevailed in the District Court and in a three-member appointed panel of the Appeals court. If the federal government were allowed to take the water for the slivery minnow, Albuquerque's future growth would have been jeopardized, city leaders claim.

While not involving the Klamath Project directly, the silvery minnow issue is being closely watched in the Klamath Project; the Klamath Water Users Association filed a brief amicus curiae in support of the water users and the government last year in this case. Various appellants including the U.S. have filed petitions asking all the judges of the 10th circuit to review and reverse the decision of the three-judge panel.

The Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA) on Wednesday addressed the National Water Resources Association (NWRA) Environmental Task Force at NWRA’s Annual Conference in Long Beach, California. KWUA Board member Bill Kennedy outlined the efforts of the Family Farm Alliance to promote new storage in the west. KWUA Executive Director Dan Keppen earlier in the day described what Klamath Project irrigators have learned since the 2001 curtailment of Project supplies to meet Endangered Species Act requirements, and discussed with other western water interests what actions can be taken to avoid similar situations in the future.

Keppen also met with U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner John Keys, who was in Long Beach to participate in the conference and to take part in a groundbreaking ceremony for a new seawater desalination facility near Seal Beach.

When completed in 2004, the plant will test a patented membrane technology to filter salt and impurities from 300,000 gallons of ocean water daily. The process, dubbed the "Long Beach Method", uses about 20 percent to 30 percent less energy than more traditional approaches, officials said. If the plant’s 18-month experiment proves successful at that scale, the city of Long Beach hopes to build a permanent plant capable of processing 10 million gallons a day.

Water was on everyone’s mind Wednesday afternoon, when a sudden storm flooded Los Angeles streets and freeways, darkened neighborhoods, and caused air traffic into Los Angeles International Airport to be redirected to San Diego and San Francisco. Five inches of rain fell in South Los Angeles in less than two hours, according to the National Weather Service. In the foothills east of Los Angeles, officials were bracing for possible flooding and mudslides from land recently razed by wild fires. Residents in Watts scrambled to shovel over 12 inches of hail that accumulated in some areas. The evening news broadcast pictures of children having a snowball fight in Watts.

"It’s been freaky," said Captain Mark Savage of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Individuals from the Klamath Tribes, Upper Basin agriculture, and the Klamath Project met last week to further investigate opportunities to address long-term resource challenges facing the Klamath Basin. Much of the meeting focused on modeling efforts currently under development by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Technical Services Center in Denver, Colorado. Bill Bettenberg, policy official for the U.S. Department of the Interior, accompanied a team of modeling experts from Denver who presented preliminary assessments at the meeting.

Past efforts to simulate Klamath Project operations have been hampered by limitations inherent in KPSIM, the spreadsheet model currently employed by Reclamation. The technical staffers from Denver provided an overview of a new modeling effort, which is based on CALSIM, a water resources simulation model widely accepted in California. This model allows the user to easily specify a system network and define objectives. Then, CALSIM applies a linear program solver to optimize decisions for each modeled time step. CALSIM’s proponents believe this tool provides a state-of-the-art approach to river and reservoir system modeling.

"CALSIM frees the modeler from solving the problem," said Paul Weghorst, Principal Hydraulic Engineer from Reclamation’s Denver office. "Only the goals and objectives have to be described."

The development of the new model will provide a useful tool for policy makers and stakeholders to assess various management scenarios. In the current discussions, it will be used to look at a variety of long-term and immediate conditions. For example, runs will be conducted to simulate what happens when the Upper Klamath Lake level requirements proposed by the tribes in the water rights adjudication process are imposed. Similarly, a run will be conducted to mimic what will happen if the Klamath Project were to deliver the full amount of water claimed by irrigators in the adjudication.

"These types of scenarios demonstrate the possible outcomes we might see if we cannot come up with an alternative approach to adjudication," said Jim Root, a Wood River Valley landowner who has facilitated recent meetings.

Future meetings will focus on developing specific management alternatives that will involve a mix of new storage, upstream water purchases, dry-year demand reduction, and flexibility in Upper Klamath Lake levels and Iron Gate Dam releases. Klamath Project irrigators insist that any sort of demand reduction program can only be implemented with a guarantee that remaining, non-participating acres receive full water supplies.

"Ultimately, we view any demand reduction program as a temporary measure," said KWUA Executive Director. "The development of new water storage is the only long-term solution that will help meet the expanded water demand imposed by implementation of the Endangered Species Act."

Water managers from Klamath Drainage District are currently assessing water storage opportunities in the area near Straits Drain. Long Lake offstream storage is also being considered as a potential long-term yield enhancement project. Collaborators are hoping to develop a preliminary conceptual proposal in the coming weeks that can be reviewed by the broader community, which is becoming increasingly concerned about the perceived closed nature of the meetings.

Despite conflicting information recently released by the National Research Council (NRC), The Wilderness Society has restarted its attack on Klamath Project farmers and the Bush Administration regarding the 2002 Klamath River fish die-off. The national environmental group recently took the Portland Oregonian to task for its coverage of the release of the recent NRC report on the Klamath River watershed.

"Your Oct. 22 article ….contains information that is flat-out wrong," wrote Leslie Catherwood, of The Wilderness Society in Washington. "The scientists did not let the Klamath Irrigation Project off the hook and, in fact, took no position on the cause of last year's disastrous Klamath River fish kill."

Actual review of the NRC report contradicts this perspective. The final NRC report did not concur with the allegations made by advocates like The Wilderness Society within days of last year’s unfortunate die-off of salmon on the lower Klamath River. Even though the fish die-off occurred 200 miles downstream from the Klamath Project, at a location below the confluence of the main stem Klamath River and the Trinity River, these critics quickly assigned blame to reduced river flows caused by the Klamath Project. The NRC report disagreed, and found "no obvious explanation of the fish kill based on unique flow or temperature conditions is possible".

"It is unclear what the effect of specific amounts of additional flow drawn from controllable upstream sources (Trinity and Iron Gate Reservoirs) would have been," the NRC committee found. "Flows from the Trinity River could be most effective in lowering temperature."

Committee Chairman Dr. William Lewis in a press teleconference call on October 21^st noted that some alternative factor or factors, other than river flows or temperature, contributed to the fish die-off.

"The reason for the fish die-off is unproven at the moment," he said.

The Wilderness Society is apparently not convinced by this information, or by a court decision handed down earlier this year by Judge Saundra Armstrong. Based on the conflicting evidence presented by the parties regarding the cause of the fish die-off, Armstrong found that a "triable issue of fact" exists. Accordingly, the Court denied the Tribes’ motions for summary judgment on this matter. Nevertheless, Catherwood states that the NRC report "was unable to confidently exonerate the Bush administration's water policy from blame for the kill," said Catherwood. "In addition….a report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, currently being suppressed by the administration, points the finger squarely in the other direction."

The report noted by Catherwood is actually a draft version that was leaked on October 21^st to the Eureka Times Standard, a paper that has been highly critical of Klamath Project operations in the past year. This draft report was apparently an early version of the pending final U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) report, and, according to senior USFWS officials in Sacramento, has since been substantially modified after further agency review.

"The cause of death - the low water flows - was a direct result of a decision by the Bush administration to divert river water for farming," Catherwood concludes.

Tuesday, November 18, 2003 – KWUA Administrative Committee Meeting. 9:00 a.m. Klamath Irrigation District Office, KID Lane, Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Wednesday, November 19, 2003 – KWUA Executive Committee Meeting. 2:00 p.m., KWUA Office, 2455 Patterson Street, Suite 3, Klamath Falls, Oregon.
 

Klamath Water Users Association
2455 Patterson Street, Suite 3
Klamath Falls, Oregon 97603
(541)-883-6100 FAX (541)-883-8893 kwua@cdsnet.net

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