By Kehn Gibson, Staff Writer
On the day Klamath Project irrigators were told the Project would be shut
down to meet required levels in Upper Klamath Lake, more than 2,000
acre-feet of water was released over Iron Gate Dam.
The rate of the release exceeded that called for in the Bureau of
Reclamation’s 2003 Operations Plan, which set a release of 1,300 acre-feet
per day. The same plan also includes the minimum lake levels that Klamath
Project Manager Dave Sabo told irrigators on June 25 he could not violate
under “explicit directives” that came from within the Department of
Interior.
In the days following the shut down announcement, a decision reversed
after the White House contacted the Interior officials, the releases
continued at a similar rate.
According to records obtained by The Tri-County Courier, the releases at
Iron Gate have consistently exceeded the Operations Plan schedule since
they began last May. The releases continue today. Sabo said the releases
will continue at a similar rate through September.
Sabo said the release schedule was modified in May after he was approached
by the National Marine Fisheries Service, now called NOAA Fisheries, and
representatives of the Yurok Tribe. “We had reached an agreement with NMFS
and the Tribe to provide higher flows downstream,” Sabo said. “NMFS can
change the schedule any way they want. The water went down because I had
additional water from inflows into the lake.” When the Bureau saw that the
July 1 lake level as set in the Operations Plan was going to be “busted,”
Sabo said he contacted NMFS to seek flexibility in the Iron Gate release
rate. He was not successful. “I was told ‘no way,’” Sabo said. “We will
release 950 cubic feet per second through July, and 1,000 cubic feet per
second through August.”
Under the current water year designation, the Operations Plan calls for an
average of 730 cfs to be released over Iron Gate in July, and 979 cfs in
August. Should the water year be changed back to “dry” from its current
designation as “below average,” the disparity widens. The Operations Plan
calls for releases of 515 cfs in July and 560 cfs in August under a “dry”
water year schedule.
On June 13, Sabo’s office upgraded the water year type from “dry’ to
“below average.” By June 20, he said Bureau hydrologists realized the lake
level would fall below 4,142.1 by June 30, the level and date set in the
Operations Plan for a “below average” water year. Sabo said the lake would
be about one inch below the June 30 level, or approximately 5,800
acre-feet less than what was called for.
Because of the agreement, more than 31,800 acre-feet of water above what
was called for in the Operations Plan was sent downstream during the month
of June. Although Sabo said his office was surprised by the June’s crisis
in the lake level, a man who has spent nearly two decades working and
studying agriculture in the Basin was not. “It was no surprise to me,”
said Dr. Kenneth A. Rykbost, who recently retired from his post at Oregon
State University’s Experimental Station in Klamath Falls. “I could see
from the numbers we were headed for a wreck. “Everybody is looking at the
lake levels, but if you looked at what was happening downstream you could
see this coming.”
Irrigators were told this week that water deliveries to the Project will
be trimmed by a third, to just over 2,000 acre-feet per day in order to
keep the levels in Upper Klamath Lake above the standards set in the
Operation Plan..
Despite season-long water conservation efforts that includes thousands of
dollars spent on upgrading wheel lines and pumps, voluntary cutbacks, and
nearly 17,000 acres of land idled to create a “water bank,” irrigators
must now work together in an unprecedented way. Although there are no
certainties that the costs of pumping groundwater to replace water that
the Bureau says they will not deliver, wells operated by the Tulelake
Irrigation District and numerous private wells must now be used to keep an
estimated $200 million worth of Basin crops viable.
Farmers whose fields can benefit from groundwater supplies must leave
whatever Project water there is alone, so that neighbors who cannot use
groundwater can access the traditional water source. “I will do what I
can, and I know I’m not alone,” said an alfalfa farmer who asked to remain
unidentified “But, bottom line is, my crop feeds my family — my neighbor’s
doesn’t.”