Time to Take Action
Our Klamath Basin Water Crisis
Upholding rural Americans' rights to grow food,
own property, and caretake our wildlife and natural resources.
 


Bureau of Reclamation / BOR
 

Bureau of Reclamation Map of the Klamath Basin

Bureau of Reclamation Hydrology database of the Klamath Project.

Science Misconduct Page including BOR
scientists' allegations of misconduct against BOR

 

DOCUMENTS followed by ARTICLES

 

Final Biological Assessment: The Effects of the Proposed Action to Operate the Klamath Project from April 1 2019 through March 31, 2019 on Federally Listed Threatened and Endangered Species

PRESS RELEASE: Reclamation releases 2018 Klamath Project operations and drought plans, Bureau of Reclamation 6/22/18

The Klamath Project’s 2017 Operations Plan is available at https://on.doi.gov/2pqXcgn  If you encounter problems accessing the document, call 916-978-5100 (TTY 800-877-8339) or email mppublicaffairs@usbr.gov

Press Release: Klamath Project 2014 Operations Plan Released, Bureau of Reclamation  4/8/14
2014 Klamath Project Operations Plan 4/8/14

Klamath Project Biological Opinion by USFWS and NMFS, released 6/3/13.
MEMO to BOR from USFWS and NMFS regarding Klamath Project 2013 Biological Opinion posted to KBC 6/3/13.
PRESS RELEASE: Biological Opinion on Klamath Project Operations Delivered, USBR 6/3/13.
Feds OK new balance for Klamath water, Modesto Bee 6/3/12.

* Press Release: Bureau of Reclamation Klamath Project 2012 Operations Plan Released, posted to KBC 4/7/12.
*
Bureau of Reclamation 2012 Klamath Project Operations Plan, posted 4/7/12.

* Bureau of Reclamation 2012 Klamath Project
Drought Plan, posted 4/7/12.

Press Release: Klamath Project 2011 Operations Plan Released, Bureau of Reclamation  4/6/11
Klamath Project 2001 Operations Plan 4/6/11

Bureau of Reclamation 2010 Klamath Project Operation Plan 5/6/10

2009 Klamath Project Operations Plan
Klamath Project Operation Plan, Bureau of Reclamation, posted to KBC 4/8/08
PRESS RELEASE Reclamation : Klamath Project 2007 Operations Plan Released; Supplies Expected to Meet all Responsibilities, 4/9/07. "Reclamation has developed access to supplemental water of up to 100,000 acre-feet, if it is required, to meet Project needs...the WSES water comprises off-stream storage, land idling, and ground-water pumping."
Bureau 2006 Operations Plan, 4/06
PRESS RELEASE: Klamath Project 2005 Operations Plan Released posted to KBC 4/11/05
Klamath Project 2005 Operations Plan, Bureau of Reclamation 4/7/05  pdf file
Bureau's water data update for 4/4. KBC 4/11/05
Bureau of Reclamation  Water Data Update – April 12, 2005
Operation plan 2004
Our new Biological Assessment is out,  10/24/07  Page 29, Element Four, Water User Mitigation Plan: "Work with the KWUA to establish a Water User Drought Mitigation Plan which could be implemented to lessen the impact to water users when the Project experiences a water shortage. The Plan initially will be managed by Reclamation for a four-year transition period, after which it will be the sole responsibility of the KWUA under a Joint Powers Agreement..." Please, will someone explain the meaning of this to the KBC readers?? We at KBC weeded through several pages of this BA. Dikes to Klamath Lake will be breached, thousands more acres of farmland will be converted to swamps further evaporating water and raising the PH as proven before; these are the things that the National Academy of Science told us NOT to do to improve water quantity and quality. 
PRESS RELEASE: Biological Assessment, Bureau of Reclamation posted to KBC 10/24/07
Agreement Buys Time on New Klamath Project Ops Plan, KWUA 3/30/2020.

 

 

 

ARTICLES
Science Misconduct Page including BOR
scientists' allegations of misconduct
against BOR

 

State of emergency: More than 100 wells now dry in Klamath County, H&N 11/8/22. KBC NOTE: Wells have gone dry in the Modoc and Siskiyou Counties in the Klamath Project too. The Bureau of Reclamation withheld from farms our stored irrigation water in Klamath Lake far above the Endangered Species Act mandates for 2 species of suckers. That water supplies irrigation water to thousands of acres of Klamath Project farms, that then goes to our National Wildlife Refuges which the Bureau also dewatered, decimating habitat for 433 species of wildlife. More than 1000 miles of drain ditches and canals exist in the Klamath Reclamation Project supplying habitat and water for the most important stop on the Pacific Flyway for migrating birds. Dewatered. When our surface water is diverted to the ocean, our wells go dry, and farmers are penalized for depleting the aquifer. According to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, our refuges provided habitat for more than 10,000 years. Until now.

GP A Canal Head.jpgReclamation extends interim operations plan for Klamath Project, Capital Press 10/21/22. "Both the Klamath Water Users Association and Klamath Tribes urged Reclamation to discard the plan after it was set to expire Sept. 30...Simmons, with the KWUA, previously said the changes authorized under the interim operations plan were “far above any level ever claimed to be necessary” for suckers, while cutting off access to another 45,000 acre-feet of water for irrigation."

Klamath Drainage District Press Release: Reclamation files surprise complaint against KDD, District disappointed in government's conduct July 11. 2022. "Scott White, General Manager for the district notes that this is not a contract issue at all and points to the district’s existing water rights of record. 'The Bureau has literally acknowledged and affirmed KDD’s water rights in the past and encouraged us to exercise them when there is no Project Supply available,'said White. 'It’s incredible that they claim we are in breach of contract for doing the very thing they asked of us for years.' '...The district is also bound by contract to deliver water to water users outside of the district, but the complaint makes no mention of the district currently facilitating the conveyance of water to the refuge under state law. 'The Bureau is out of its lane in picking and choosing which law to recognize,' states Bill Walker, President of the district. 'The Bureau supports state law when it means getting water to their land but does not when it means getting water to family farmers and ranchers...'"
UNITED STATES of America VS Klamath Drainage District, COMPLAINT with Department of Justice attorneys against the small Klamath Drainage District 7/5/22.

Managing Water,  Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton visits Klamath Basin, Capital Press 7/5/22. "...Asked whether she sees the Klamath Project as sustainable with its current model and scale, Touton said, “I don’t want to speculate on that...”

KID's A Canal< Headgates of A Canal at Klamath Irrigation District
Irrigators, tribes object to extending Klamath Project interim operations plan, Capital Press 6/30/22. "In a letter sent June 17 to Ernest Conant, Reclamation’s regional director, the Klamath Water Users Association outlined deficiencies in the interim operations plan, claiming “it is based on erroneous data, flawed hydrologic assumptions and a proposed action that does not comport with current operations...The three years of attempted operation under the (plan) has been a period of chaotic, ad hoc decision-making,” the letter states. “KWUA has, for well over a year, emphasized the lack of any coherent regulatory construct for the IOP. That point is further underscored by the fact that the IOP has required Reclamation to do things that literally are impossible.”

    "During their (the Bureau's) 'ramp up', they ONCE AGAIN, as in EVERY PRIOR time, exceeded maximum legal ramping rates/hour by well over 200%, risking lives and infrastructure." Message from rancher Rex Cozzalio, Hornbrook (on the Klamath River), 4/30/22. "It looks like the last 'Klamath flush' starting April 15th went from 1300cfs (no reduction from their 'biop' overrated amount) to 4600cfs at the peak, ramping down back to 1300cfs after about 8 days.  During their 'ramp up', they ONCE AGAIN, as in EVERY PRIOR time, exceeded maximum legal ramping rates/hour by well over 200%, risking lives and infrastructure.  ONCE AGAIN, they 'notified' the County the DAY BEFORE before the 'event', which makes it impossible for the County to effectively notify residents.
    
Considering only the difference between the 1300cfs and 4600cfs peak, the stored water to manufacture that unnatural 'flush' exceeded roughly 26,000 acre feet ABOVE base flow, or roughly enough water for 300,000 people for a year, or close to 9,000 acres of irrigated ground to what may be minimal 'dilution' benefit."

 

Klamath Tribes Press Release: Klamath Tribes respond to BOR water allocations 4/12/22. "Today, we see in the Klamath Basin the consequences of nearly 120 years of ecosystem degradation at the hands of the settler society. They have drained hundreds of thousands of acres of open water and wetlands, mowed down the largest pine forests in the west, mined the groundwater to the point that wells now go dry where marshes and lakes formerly prevailed, straightened whole river systems and striven to eradicate beavers that once engineered complex waterways, allowed their cattle to destroy riparian zones and defecate in icy cold springs, and dammed the mighty Klamath River five times."
KBC NOTE: In 2022 Klamath farmers got none of their stored water. The government and tribes mandated higher than historical water levels in Klamath Lake where our water is stored, dewatering our farms and wildlife refuges, "open water and wetlands" which supported 433 species of wildlife here; the biological opinion deals with 3. According to USFWS, these refuges had water for more than 10,000 years, before 2022. With all of our stored surface water denied to farmers, many of our wells did go dry. Because of mandates by government agencies and tribes to not log or thin our forests, millions of acres burned the past summers. The Tribes are presently suing the government to deny us farmers a meager 50,000 acre feet of water this summer also, while mandating historically high levels for Klamath Lake, and also Klamath River to be sent to the ocean. They want to rip out the hydroelectric dams on the river which serve 70,000 families with power. Tribal members have told us they like electricity. Also, most rivers have been fenced to prevent cattle from entering the rivers.

Reclamation to release 50,000 acre-feet of water to Klamath Project; provide $20M in drought response, H&N 4/12/22. “We have 170,000 acres that could be irrigated this year and we’re ready to get to work,” KWUA President Ben DuVal...On a single acre, we can produce over 50,000 pounds of potatoes, or 6,000 pounds of wheat. This year, most of that land will not produce any food because the government is denying water for irrigation. We’ll just be trying to keep the weeds and dust under control.” "
“While reclamation has provided us some opportunities to work with them, the farmers and ranchers of this basin and our community all depend on agriculture. About one in three jobs in the basin can be tied to agriculture,” (Klamath Irrigation District Manager) Gene Souza said. “The loss is going to be felt in restaurants and grocery stores and potentially in food market across the nation.  It’s just a shame we’ve got 350,000 acre-feet of (our stored) water in Upper Klamath and we’re only (getting) a small piece.”

Bureau of Reclamation Annual Operations Plan 2022 for the Klamath Reclamation Project, April 2022.

BOR PRESS RELEASE: Reclamation opens Klamath Project irrigation season with limited water supply allocation amid extreme drought, 4/11/22

OWRD/Oregon Water Resources Department counter claim against U.S. Regarding Bureau of Reclamation releasing legally-stored stored Klamath Project irrigation water into ocean 4/7/22. "...Section 8 of the Reclamation Act of 1902, which authorizes Reclamation to operate the Klamath Project in Southern Oregon and Northern California, expressly requires Reclamation to comply with state water law in those operations..." KBC NOTE: FYI, 2 of the Plaintiffs are PCFFA / Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen and IFFR / Institute for Fisheries Resources. According to PCFFA, "Rather than seek out yet another unrelated non-profit to funnel the money through, PCFFA created a new organization (IFFR)..."  

Klamath irrigators vote for water deliveries even if it puts federal drought funding at risk, OPB 4/5/22. "Out of 377 votes, 319 KID members voted ‘yes’ to the ballot question: “Pursuant to both our federal contract obligations and state water rights, do you want the district to attempt to deliver you water knowing it will likely complicate federal drought funding?”
(KID manager Gene Souza) says that drought funding makes up a fraction of what would be generated by farmers and which would, in turn, stimulate the local economy..."

< Eleanor Bolesta, former WWII Wave, Tulelake Homesteader

75 years ago, March 13, 1947 - War Veterans Win Tulelake Homesteads 
"Eighty-five veterans of the last war, some still wearing a jacket, shirt or a pair of trousers issued to them while in the service, stepped to the platform in the Bureau of Reclamation hall this morning, laid a finger on a big map and as winners in the big Tulelake homestead drawing, became land owners."  H&N 3/13/22

 

Reclamation officials talk dams, Klamath Basin, hydropower, drought. What's up with water in the West? Q&A with western water officials, Capital Press 3/4/22.
 <  Ernest Conant, Bureau of Reclamation Regional Director
Capital Press: "
What’s the game plan for the Klamath Basin? I’m looking for specific ideas or plans that are under consideration to alleviate the crisis there."   "...Ernest Conant, Bureau of Reclamation Regional Director, "...We don’t have any specific plans right now. We’re looking at a lot of different options to take a more strategic long-term approach. It’s just a very difficult situation because we have all these competing interests over endangered species, the interests of various tribes and farmers....I can’t be much more specific at this point....The bipartisan infrastructure law has $162 million that goes to projects in the Klamath Basin the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be handling. There are a number of things that could be done to improve the fishery, for example, thereby taking off some pressure...There’s a process being set up for people to apply for the bipartisan infrastructure money, so different districts in Klamath could apply for conservation or infrastructure grants like you’re referring to.I’m sorry I can’t give you more specifics about grand plans. There is no grand plan at this point..."

The Klamath Basin requires additional precipitation for a timely start to the 2022 irrigation season. A delay might be avoided if net winter inflows to Upper Klamath Lake are near “average”.
<
2/28/22 For Reclamations's in-depth monthly updates visit http://usbr.gov/mp/kbao

 

A dry January foreshadows another tough year for the Klamath Basin, News10 1/24/22. "Gene Souza, Klamath Irrigation District Manager, says they’re anticipating an April water delivery to its users at the latest. He says with how low the reservoirs are right now, he’d need to pull water from the lake starting in February and that request has already been denied by the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR)...“The water that we take out to grow crops to sustain our families and communities, that water comes down here [Tule Lake] and benefits birds, fish, and other wildlife, bald eagle, wolves, coyotes..." Souza’s biggest frustration is that the water they use for their irrigation district all ends up back in the Klamath River anyways. He says whatever water runs off of farms and ranches and through the county all runs into the wildlife refuges, at which point excess water is pumped out to the river..."

Klamath Irrigation District Court Filings 2021 regarding Bureau of Reclamation denying Klamath Irrigators their stored water

WA1300001 is the initial notice April 25, 2021
KID request for judicial notice Dec. 7, 2018
KID motion to remand April 20, 2021
BOR memo opposition to motion May 4, 2021
KID reply memo MOT to remand May 11, 2021

Judge refuses to declare Oregon state forest logging 'takes' coho salmon, Capital Press 12/24/21. "A federal judge has refused to declare that logging activities in Oregon’s Clatsop and Tillamook state forests have unlawfully harmed threatened coho salmon..."

 

Lower Klamath National Wildlife RefugeOff-season irrigation could pause as Reclamation 'pays back' PacifiCorp reservoirs, H&N 12/4/22. "A coalition of conservation groups, including the California Waterfowl Association, Ducks Unlimited, the Klamath Basin Audubon Society and Bird Ally X, wrote to Reclamation in October asking them to continue the "well-established practice" of releasing the lake's surplus water for fall migration and irrigation purposes. Reclamation declined to do so, citing concerns about meeting higher minimum lake elevations come spring, especially following two extremely dry years. Klamath Basin Refuge Complex Supervisory Biologist John Vradenburg told the Herald and News last month that, while the lack of water on Lower Klamath and Tule Lake refuges this summer may have helped stave off an avian botulism outbreak, not having winter water to produce food and habitat for birds migrating north in the spring is a much more serious problem. Millions of birds already skipped the Klamath Basin, once the single most important wetland complex on the Pacific Flyway, for the 2021 fall migration, and their wintering grounds in the Central Valley are producing less food due to drought. When they return in the spring, they'll be extra hungry and in need of a rest stop."

 

 

Dry Sump 1ABeating botulism (in Tule Lake refuge), H&N 11/16/21. "Tule Lake Sump 1A is mostly dry after most of its water was drained to Sump 1B to try and prevent the spread of botulism..." (KBC NOTE: because The Bureau of Reclamation denied water to the farms and refuges) Eventually, refuge managers will try to refill Sump 1A and create a better environment for waterfowl."

KILLING SUCKERS: The following comment was on our Klamath Basin Crisis Facebook page: November 2022 - From Matt Brimmer 4 days ago in a discussion in this fb group regarding suckers, hatchery, and draining Sump 1A : "Michael this has been attempted on a couple different instances since 2001 and has failed. I sat in on one of the original meetings regarding a Sucker Hatchery. It was set up on Lower Klamath Wildlife refuge towards the Sterns Unit. It was working well until the Birds found it and ate most of them! I also had the opportunity to be part of the Team that assisted with Sucker fish capture on the Caldona (Running Y) marsh when the dike broke. This made for what the ESA and the Tribes called the perfect Sucker Habitat. However, I believe we only captured around 30-40 Suckers. Then let’s fast forward to this year when TID with the assistance of Ducks Unlimited and the Tulelake Basin Farmers drained Sump 1A (again supposed perfect sucker habitat). Multiple Large Adult Breeding suckers were trapped however were not allowed to be moved from 1A to Klamath Lake. They were moved to Sump 1B where most were found floating a few weeks later."

Reclamation announces $2.7 million for Klamath River coho salmon, Bureau of Reclamation News Release 11/15/21. "Project types that will be given the highest priority include riparian and instream habitat restoration and improvements, barrier modification and fish passage improvement, fish screens, and water conservation. Program efforts will be focused on the mainstem of the Klamath River and tributaries between Klamath River mile 190 to the Klamath River estuary."
Reclamation nets $2.7 million to help Klamath River coho, H&N 11/15/21

Reclamation adds $5 million to Klamath Project drought relief, H&N 10/5/21. "...roughly $35 million is headed to the basin to help farmers through a devastating water year..."

Reclamation DENIES Klamath Irrigators their stored water despite exceeding the minimum required water for fish,  violating laws, rights, contracts, and integrity! Letter from Bureau of Reclamation to Klamath Water Users Association/KWUA 9/27/21

Tulelake Irrigation District requested PacifiCorp to loan 10,000 acre feet of water to refuges for wildlife, to be repaid by Lost River flows. Klamath Irrigators were denied all of their stored water this year by Bureau of Reclamation against court orders. We have the following letters from FWS, BOR and PacifiCorp but not from Klamath Tribes, NMFS or TID.
Bureau of Reclamation to PacifiCorp: Request for PacifiCorp Temporary Water Borrow for Tule Lake Sump 1B 8/4/2021. "Reclamation requests that PacifiCorp draw down reservoir storage by 10,000 (AF), which will allow Reclamation and Tulelake Irrigation District (TID) to use the volume to help support Sump 1B elevations...The borrowed volume will be paid back from Lost River flows after the irrigation season comes to an end in the Lost River; this is currently anticipated to occur in late September or early October."

PacifiCorp letter to Bureau regarding Request for PacifiCorp Temporary Water Borrow for Tule Lake Sump 1B, 8/5/21. "...The goal of this effort is to provide water into Sump 1B to protect endangered Lost River and Shortnose suckers in Sump 1B and improve conditions for migratory waterfowl that rely on that habitat..." NOTE: This water for the refuges was paid back by the Bureau out of our farm water storage. Project irrigators were allowed none of their stored water this year.

FWS to BOR, signed Memorandum regarding Request for Water Transfer to Tule Lake Sump 1B, 8/4/21. "The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is following up with you regarding recent conversations between the Service, the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and Klamath Basin tribes and stakeholders about the developing situation at Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) Sump 1B. As Sump 1B continues to dry up due to ongoing drought conditions and agricultural diversions, the Service believes action must be taken to protect migratory waterfowl, Lost River and shortnose suckers listed under the Endangered Species Act, and the habitat that Sump 1B provides these species...Tulelake Irrigation District (TID) has requested water be made available from PacifiCorp for Sump 1B, and PacifiCorp has indicated they have 10,000 acre-feet of water that can be used for this purpose..."

Bureau of Reclamation to FWS Memorandum regarding Request for Water Transfer to Tule Lake Sump 1B 080421. "...immediate action is needed to protect endangered Lost River and shortnose suckers, migratory waterfowl, and the habitat that Tulelake Sump 1B provides these species...Reclamation anticipates that the volume borrowed from PacifiCorp reservoirs will be transferred as soon as practicable, but no later than August 6, and occur at the rate of approximately 150 cfs...The borrowed volume will be paid back from flood flows or Lost River flows after the irrigation season comes to an end in the Lost River..."

 

Letter from Klamath Irrigation District to Bureau of Reclamation 5/14/21.
* The 1954 Contract Does Not Grant Reclamation Total Discretion to Curtail Diversions
* Reclamation reinstallation of bulkheads violates KID’s 1954 contract
* Section 9 of ESA does not authorize Reclamation to preemptively curtail KID diversions
* Reclamation is liable for all damages directly or indirectly resulting from its resumption of operational control of the A-Canal
* KID is reassuming operational control and removing bulkheads

BOR letter to Klamath Irrigation District: No Water for Klamath Irrigators in 2021 5/12/21

Extreme drought conditions force closure of Klamath Project’s “A” Canal, Bureau of Reclamation News Release KBC 5/12/21. "Klamath Project’s “A” Canal will remain closed for the 2021 irrigation season."

Judge refuses to restrict water releases from Upper Klamath Lake, Capital Press 5/6/21

KDD diversion continues, Reclamation could release more lake water in response, H&N, 4/30/21. “In the past, Reclamation has directed KDD to divert under this state permit when project water isn’t available...On March 30, OWRD declared that stored water in Upper Klamath Lake was not flowing through Link River Dam and that all water available in the river was live flow. Desmond said KDD took that as permission to be able to make diversions in April, and that other private water users along the river in Oregon have similar state permits that allowed them to do the same...the Bureau plans to reduce Upper Klamath Lake levels to make up for KDD’s diversion..."

 

KWUA seeks further legal clarification on Klamath Project operations, H&N 4/24/21. “As Reclamation admits, it is not adhering to the interim plan,” the motion read. “Non-adherence to the interim plan translates to the severe detriment of KWUA’s members and farm and ranch families served by the Klamath Project..." "KWUA also argued that there are pressing legal issues concerning project operations that must go before a judge, particularly in light of court cases in Oregon that have found that Reclamation does not have the authority to satisfy ESA requirements (whether through sending water downriver or keeping it in Upper Klamath Lake) at the expense of Project irrigators..."

Klamath Water Users Association brings legal challenge to Klamath Project operations, KWUA News Release 4/22/21. "Klamath Water Users Association filed court papers to re-open a lawsuit and seek a ruling that the Bureau of Reclamation’s current approach to regulating water deliveries for the Klamath Project is illegal. KWUA filed a motion in federal court asking the court to lift a stay of existing litigation and then rule on critical legal issues that affect irrigation water availability...The Yurok Tribe and Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA) sued the Bureau of Reclamation and National Marine Fisheries Service for alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) related to Project operations that had been adopted to control Project operations from 2019-2024...."

KLAMATH LAKE APRIL 22, 2021

The Bureau of Reclamation is not allowing farmers to irrigate with their stored water
in Klamath Lake until the water rises a few inches to water the suckers.

Young Klamath Basin aspiring agriculturist Colten Wright regarding the Bureau of Reclamation's decision to shut down more than 90% of our deeded water allocation 4/21/2021.

 

Upper Klamath Lake is nearly to the brim. Photo taken March 25, 2021 by Jacqui Krizo.Klamath farmers are frustrated, up against a wall,  Siskiyou Daily News: Liz Writes Life: 4/20/21. Photo: Upper Klamath Lake is nearly to the brim. "the federal Bureau of Reclamation announced that the Klamath Project will receive about six percent of its needed irrigation water for more than 220,000 acres in the Project...That hurts a lot of farmers and also means six wildlife refuges will lose water that gives life to 433 species, including ESA-listed bald eagles. Also, the Klamath Bureau of Reclamation announced it would not allow any irrigation until after May 15..." 2021.

 

KDD begins water deliveries, Reclamation orders it to cease, H&N 4/17/21. "According to a news release from KDD, the district acquired the permit from the Oregon Water Resources Department in 1977 for the use of live flow from the Klamath River for irrigation."  Bureau of Reclamation: “If KDD does not cease all diversions at the Ady and North canals as soon operationally feasible, in due course (1) Reclamation staff will access Reclamation-owned property to close the gates to the Ady Canal, (2) water users within the KDD boundary may not be eligible for Drought Relief Act funds, and (3) the United States may take other legal action against KDD and its members.”

 

4/15/21 - Today the Bureau of Reclamation released their verdict of 32,000 acre feet of irrigation water for the entire Klamath Reclamation Project to be available in June. At this public meeting KWUA President Ben DuVal had to break the devastating news to the community because the Bureau of Reclamation refused to attend. Congressman LaMalfa’s office attended as well as elected officials from Modoc and Siskiyou Counties. There might be a possibility of another small amount of water this fall, if the tribal lawsuits fail to shut us down completely. VIDEO KWUA 2021 Operations Meeting, April 15, 2021. https://kwua.org/kwua-2021-operations-meeting/

 

Klamath Water Users Association statement regarding DOI withdrawal of updated Klamath Project legal guidance, KWUA Press Release 4/8/21. "(Previous legal guidance: "...the only legally authorized use of water stored in Upper Klamath Lake is irrigation.." )

 

Bureau of Reclamation's threat to KID / Klamath Irrigation District 4/2/2021. Letter from Bureau of Reclamation to Klamath Irrigation District attorney Nathan Rietmann, threatening KID with federal court and "potential suspension or exclusion from the drought relief funding program this year..." if KID so much as takes their stored irrigation water from Klamath Lake, "even to charge the canals."

 

Klamath Project Water Availability from Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River, Bureau of Reclamation 4/2/21. "Reclamation now anticipates this delay to be at least through May 1, 2021, and likely further in time..."

 

Klamath Irrigation District v. US Bureau of Reclamation, regarding Waters of the Klamath River Basin, Emergency Motion for Preliminary Injunction 3/29/21. "...Reclamation sometimes says it is using stored water in UKL to fulfill trust obligations it has to the Hoopa Valley and Yurok Tribes, both of which are located in California. But Reclamation’s trust obligations to the tribes in California afford no water rights to use stored water in UKL, as neither Tribe (nor Reclamation on their behalf) has ever claimed a water right in UKL in the Klamath Adjudication..."
 

Klamath Project Water is currently unavailable from Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River, Bureau Of Reclamation Notice to Project irrigators, 3/12/21. "This letter is to notify you that water is currently unavailable from Upper Klamath Lake (UKL) and the Klamath River for irrigation purposes within the Klamath Project (Project) for the reasons further explained below. Accordingly, your district is hereby directed to delay diversions of water from UKL and the Klamath River until further notice..."

 

Feds plan to update guidance for Klamath Project operations, H&N, 1/27/2021. "A 41-page report produced by the Bureau’s Klamath Basin Area Office argued that the agency does not have as much authority to protect species listed under the Endangered Species Act as it is currently exercising."

 

USFWS acts to remove land from critical habitat for owl, CFBF Ag Alert 1/20/21. "...The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said last week it would revise the designation of critical habitat for the owl, to exclude nearly 3.5 million acres of land in California, Oregon and Washington...The action leaves more than 6.1 million acres of land in the three states designated as critical habitat for the owl, which has been protected under the ESA as a threatened species since 1990."

Bureau of Reclamation NEWS RELEASE -
Reclamation releases water reliability in the West report 1/19/21

 

KWUA NEWS RELEASE: Bureau of Reclamation updates guidance for Klamath Project Operations under Endangered Species Act and water law 1/19/2021. “...Reclamation has found that it still has duties for species protection, but those duties do not include imposing harmful shortages on irrigation as we have seen in the past...”
KID wins again, Oregon Court of Appeals, KID vs OWRD 1/14/2021. OWRD's/Oregon Water Resources Department's motion for stay is now "moot". Judge Bennett's order, that OWRD must not allow stored water in Klamath Lake reserved for irrigation to be illegally used or dumped into the ocean, is not currently appealable.

 

***ANOTHER WIN FOR KID / KLAMATH IRRIGATION DISTRICT, KID vs OWRD:
Judge Bennett Order on Motion for Reconciliation 1/7/20. DENIED. Judge Bennett's ORDER: "Respondents' (OWRD) Motion restates their misapprehension of this courts Orders in 20CV17922 and 20CV15606. Respondents' accepted exclusive jurisdiction over the UKL pursuant to ORS 540.210. Respondents are required by that statute to divide and distribute the water therefrom in accordance with the respective and relative rights of the various users. Despite this statutory obligation, Respondents have continued to allow the Bureau of Reclamation to take Stored Water without determining the Bureau's right to do so. The Respondents continue to violate the Oregon Water Rights Act by allowing the Bureau to take and use Stored Water in the UKL without determining it is entitled to do so as required by ORS 540.210. Respondents must stop the release until a determination is made pursuant to ORS 540.740. Nothing in the Court's Order dictates how the Respondents make the determination or what criteria is used. TPC, LLC v. OWRD,
308 Or.App. 177 is not analogous or factually similar to this case. MAKE A DETERMINATION"
 

Letter from Department of Interior  Solicitors to Daniel H. Jorjani, Solicitor, regarding Bureau of Reclamations Klamath Basin water management 10/28/2020. "...Reclamation’s discretion on how the Project is operated and whether certain consequences to listed species and their habitat are effects of the Project operations is almost certainly constrained by various contracts with Klamath Project water users..."
 

Klamath Irrigation District Manager responds to the question, "How much water was illegally taken from Project irrigators and sent to the ocean this year?" 9/15/2020

 

Reclamation announces more water for Klamath Project, refuges, H&N 9/6/2020

 

Reclamation invests in new science updates for Klamath Project, BOR News Release 7/29/2020.

 

Interior Secretary Bernhardt came to Klamath Falls to help find water solutions, Liz Bowen Column in Siskiyou Daily News, 7/15/2020

 

Interior Secretary Bernhardt and Reclamation Commissioner Burman travel to Klamath Basin at LaMalfa’s Request, Congressman Doug LaMalfa News Release 7/12/2020. "After Congressman LaMalfa continuously engaged with the Trump Administration, water allocations were restored to the April commitment, and the tens of thousands of acres of already planted crops would be able to survive the growing season. Congressman LaMalfa and Congressman Greg Walden (OR-02) extended the invitation to Secretary Bernhardt and Commissioner Burman to visit the Basin for today’s events..."

Interior officials tour Klamath Basin, promise solutions, Western Farm Press 7/10/2020. "U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman promised to seek a resolution to the decades-long water conflicts in the basin after meeting with growers, local water officials and other affected parties.

 

IMG_0781.jpg< From left to right: Congressman Greg Walden, BOR Brenda Burman, Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt, and Congressman Doug LaMalfa speak Thursday on a field in Midland
Secretary of Interior Bernhardt tours Midland field of crosses, H&N 7/10/2020. "Gasser said Bernhardt is responsible for returning the Project to receive 140,000 acre feet of irrigation water. 'He saved this community … even though there are still a lot of farmers out there who have no water. There’s a lot of hurt still going on, but if he wouldn’t have done what he did, it really would’ve been horrific because a lot of investments were made planning on the (140,000 acre feet) … millions of dollars would’ve been lost and a lot of growers would’ve been lost.' "

 

! Klamath Irrigation District requests a temporary restraining order against OWRD, Director Byler and Watermaster Watson, filed 6/12/2020. Bureau Of Reclamation, with an agreement with PacifiCorp, is presently diverting an extreme amount Klamath Irrigators' stored water into Klamath River, and Upper Klamath Lake elevation is rapidly lowering: "...enough to supply one acre foot of water to at least the 10,342 acres of land in Klamath Basin Improvement District, 3,911 acres of land in Shasta View Irrigation District, 2,981 acres of land within Enterprise Irrigation, and 904 acres of land in Pine Grove Irrigation District, which are shut-off and not receiving any water from UKL reservoir..."

 

BOR PRESS RELEASE: Reclamation secures 2020 water supply for Klamath Project, 6/9/2020. "...Reclamation will deliver approximately 140,000 acre-feet to the Klamath Project from Upper Klamath Lake in 2020..."
 

Klamath Irrigation District and Shasta View Irrigation District vs Bureau of Reclamation, Judge Clark decision, filed May 15, 2020.

 

Water crisis looming on Klamath Project, by Lyle Ahrens, KOBI KOTI TV 5/13/2020. KID Manager Gene Souza: “Based on the information that I have from Reclamation, we could be seeing a cutoff for Klamath Irrigation District as soon as June 15th...Hundreds of millions of dollars in workers, in restaurants, in equipment, transportation, fuel, everything that keeps this basin going is at risk right now...”

 

A disaster on our hands, H&N, 5/8/2020. "The Klamath Project ...is now facing a possible water shutoff by or before July. The water allocation of 140,000 acre feet for the Project announced (by Reclamation) in April will likely drop to...an unofficial estimate of 55,000 acre feet left for the remainder of the irrigation season...For comparison, 350,000 acre feet is a full allocation for the Project... 'This is a significant reduction from the 140,000 acre feet we were told in April,” Souza said in an email on Friday. “Farmers have planted crops, hired workers, and have made plans based upon the 140,000 acre feet … and the rug is currently being pulled out from underneath them.' "
KBC NOTE: Yesterday, May 8th, approximately 100 farmers and ranchers gathered to be told that the Bureau will probably shut off their water in June, contrary to what they promised in April. Also the Bureau is sending massive amounts of water down the Klamath River contrary to a court order: "The BOR is hereby ordered to cease releasing stored water from UKL reservoir..." 
  
The Bureau's interim report concludes, "the cumulative impacts (to help fish) are likely to be minor, as sucker recovery, coho enhancement, and changes to the biological resources would require a much longer time frame to be implemented and their effects are speculative beyond the period of analysis.”

 

Project irrigators protest Reclamation's unlawful use of water, H&N 4/28/2020. "An interim order put in place by Oregon Water Resources Department on April 21 gave the state agency charge over the water distribution and demanded that Reclamation not use water from Upper Klamath Lake, including in a flushing flow down the Link River Dam, unless it follows specific guidelines outlined in the order. The order has not stopped the recent 40,000 acre foot flushing flow... The federal government’s stealing from us.”

Response to massive flows diverted out of Klamath Project irrigation water storage by Klamath River resident Rex Cozzalio, Hornbrook 4/26/2020 "...For them to continue water wasting against court orders is revealingly ironic, when BOR, OWR, and 'collaborators' are all too happy to comply when court orders are AGAINST the Upper Basin irrigators.  I truly hope this can intervene soon enough to avert total Upper Basin carnage this year..."

Klamath Project operations unchanged by OWRD ruling, H&N 4/26/2020. KBC Note: The article reads: "The order urges the Bureau of Reclamation to stop releasing stored water from Upper Klamath Lake..."  The court order reads: "The BOR is hereby ordered to cease releasing stored water from UKL reservoir..." They continue to divert our stored water out of Upper Klamath Lake.

 

Klamath water allocation short of demand for farmers, ranchers, Capital Press 4/24/2020. "The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will provide approximately 140,000 acre-feet of water to farms and ranches from Upper Klamath Lake in 2020...only one-third of historical demand for the Klamath Project...The plan, finalized Wednesday, comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by the Yurok Tribe, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and the Institute for Fisheries Resources against the bureau, seeking an additional 50,000 acre-feet of water for salmon..."

 

OWRD takes charge of Upper Klamath Lake, H&N 4/24/2020. "The (court) order said it prohibits U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from diverting stored water in Upper Klamath Lake through Link River for purposes of a 50,000 acre-feet flushing flow without a water right."  KBC NOTE: Rumor has it that the Bureau is defying the court order and continues to divert our stored water into the ocean.

 

April's EXTREME "pulse flows", 6000cfs, dewatering Klamath irrigators' stored water 4/23/2020 from rancher Rex Cozzalio, Hornbrook, CA on the Klamath River. The 3 photos of flooding are Iron Gate flow wasted over the spillway, Hornbrook on the Klamath River, and Klamathon Bridge near Hornbrook.


On our Klamath Basin Crisis Facebook Page, a question was asked "Why are the Yutok stating they did not receive the 40,000af flushing flows per the Herald and News ? "
Klamath Irrigation District manager Gene Souze responded,
"the 40,000 is an additional augmentation to 400,000 environmental water agreed to by Reclamation to stay a 50,000 litigation for more in this drought year. To date they have received nearly 250,000 + 7000 + 8000...and should have well over 422,500 by the end of September. For them to complain about not getting water..."

 

 

Reclamation releases Interim Operating Procedures and 2020 Operations Plan for the Klamath Project, Bureau of Reclamation News Release 4/22/2020. "the Project supply from Upper Klamath Lake for the 2020 irrigation season is approximately 140,000 acre-feet. This volume is approximately one-third the historical irrigation demand of the Klamath Project...The 2020 Operations Plan ... provides increased water flows in the Klamath River for Endangered Species Act-listed coho, as well as Chinook salmon, and maintains Upper Klamath Lake elevations important for endangered Lost River and shortnose suckers..." KBC NOTE: Rec concludes "...Finding of No Significant Impact related to the Interim Operating Procedures..." however the plan states that "...involuntary land fallowing of productive irrigable land within the Proposed Action Alternative area would occur leading to an increased risk to local rural agricultural communities.” OUR "risk" of them putting our stored water into the ocean: No water, no farms.

!!! Bureau of Reclamation NEWS RELEASE: Reclamation to implement Klamath River flushing flow for salmon health 4/21/2020. "Increased flows to begin April 22 and continue through May 1; public urged to take safety precautions on or near the river while flows are high...flows below Iron Gate Dam will increase from approximately 1,325 cubic feet per second up to 6,000 cfs. Increased releases out of Upper Klamath Lake will occur simultaneously..." KBC NOTE: The Klamath Project is projected to receive less than 50% of their deeded water this season. With this huge increased taking of Project water, the Bureau of Reclamation's draft Project operation plan, (https://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_project_details.php?Project_ID=42926) states: “During the three-year period of the Proposed Action Alternative, the cumulative impacts (to help fish) are likely to be minor, as sucker recovery, coho enhancement, and changes to the biological resources would require a much longer time frame to be implemented and their effects are speculative beyond the period of analysis.” However they operation plan promises, "...involuntary land fallowing of productive irrigable land within the Proposed Action Alternative area would occur leading to an increased risk to local rural agricultural communities.” After the three years they will inform us of their NEW plan after they destroy the Klamath River Hydroelectric Dams and downsize agriculture in the Klamath Project.

Bureau of Reclamation ERROR - TODAY April 2014 by 11:59 pm you must RESUBMIT your public comment letter with a new address on the Klamath Project interim operations because they gave you the wrong email address. First they gave us only 9 days to review their entire plan to downsize irrigated agriculture, then they threw in one more day. Just yesterday, April 13, late afternoon they said they didn’t receive our public input because of their error and only gave us ONE MORE DAY to hopefully see their email and RESUBMIT our comments, in the middle of spring farming!  4/14/2020.
Public Comment by Oregon Rep E Werner Reschke on Klamath Project Operation Plan, submitted 4/10/2020.
Public Comment by Rex Cozzalio on Klamath Project Operation Plan, resubmitted 4/14/2020.
Public Comment on Klamath Project Op Plan, resubmitted by Tulelake Farmer 4/11/2020.
Letter to Bureau of Reclamation on Lower Klamath Project; Klamath River dam removal, by Dr. Richard Gierak 4/14/2020.
 

KWUA Announces Projected Klamath Project Irrigation Allocation; Drought Response Agency Expects to Open Programs April 15 4/6/2020. “Bottom line, we’re looking at less than half of the water that’s needed,” said TID Manager Brad Kirby

4/4/2020 - KBC NOTE: PCFFA (Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen), IFR and Yurok Tribe sued to take another 50,000 acre feet of Klamath Project stored water to dump into Klamath River. Klamath Water Users settled for giving up 23,000 acre feet of their deeded water. Yuroks celebrate their victory: Yurok Tribe and commercial fishing families secure more water for salmon, The Yurok Tribe, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA), and the Institute for Fisheries Resources (IFR, represented by the nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice, have successfully obtained a new three-year plan from the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) for operating the Klamath Irrigation Project to increase springtime flows in the Klamath River.

 

*** PRESS RELEASE - COMMENTS Period extended to APRIL 11! Reclamation seeks public input on proposed Klamath Project interim operations 4/1/2020.  Please send your comments on these massive water acquisitions for whales, salmon, tribes and suckers; this is a temporary mandate to run through the projected Klamath dam removal in 2022-2023. Then they will unveil another plan made in coordination with the Yuroks (that are suing us for more water acquisitions) and other Tribes and government agencies to come up with much more water for whales, salmon and suckers after dam removal and dam reservoir storage is obliterated.

 

PRESS RELEASE - COMMENTS DUE APRIL 10! Reclamation seeks public input on proposed Klamath Project interim operations 4/1/2020. We were given 9 days to respond to a 178 page technical report, which downsizes available water to Klamath Project irrigators.

 

Agreement Buys Time on New Klamath Project Ops Plan, KWUA 3/30/2020.
 

Yurok vs. Reclamation case moved to March 6, H&N 2/28/2020

 

Comment period extended to December 2 by Bureau of Reclamation
***
Public comment for irrigation power cost reports, H&N 11/10/19.

***The draft reports, called the Klamath Basin Affordable Power Studies Power Cost Benchmark Report and Klamath River Basin America’s Water Infrastructure Act Affordable Power Measures Report are available at www.usbr.gov/mp/kbao/programs/affordable-power.html
Comments will be accepted through December 2, 2019. Comments may be emailed to bor-sha-awia@usbr.gov before midnight. By mail or hand delivery they must arrive by 4:30 p.m. to 6600 Washburn Way, Klamath Falls, OR 97603.
These are the two reports to be commented on:
* APM Draft Report Nov 7  (AWIA Report/America Water Infrastructure Act)
* PCB Draft Report Nov 12 (Power cost benchmark report)


***Some Excerpts from current and past Reports, including key words "dam removal," "KBRA, "Water Use Retirement Program." when PacifiCorps....retires and removes...Klamath River Dams," "solar facility...would require 2,400 acres of land" "number of uncertainties," "disrupt water deliveries," "Keno Dam," "power prices...volatile."

 *** Plans target irrigation power cost reduction: KWUA hearing details water study progress. Energy symposium set for October by Sustainable NW, H&N 9/11/19. "...some irrigators have seen power costs increase as much as 2,000%, according to the Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA)."
***Sustainable NW and Trout Unlimited and other dam-removal-agenda NGOs appointed Richard Roos_Collins to the Klamath River Dam removal board, KRRC.
***"Richard Roos-Collins Legal Director, NATURAL HERITAGE INSTITUTE Attorney for American Rivers, Inc, California Trout, Sustainable NW, etc. Currently he is outside general counsel for NHI, and "has drafted and negotiated more than 50 such settlements. These include: Klamath Basin Restoration and Hydropower Agreements..." http://n-h-i.org/about-nhi/board-staff/ "

 

KWUA files lawsuit against Reclamation, H&N 4/12/19. "Klamath Water Users Association, which had announced its intent to file suit last week, did so against Bureau of Reclamation on Thursday due to limitations to water supply for the Klamath Project outlined in the 2019 biological opinions."

 

Water for irrigators: KWUA announces Project delivery, H&N 4/11/19. "Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Basin Area Office will deliver at least 322,000 acre feet of water — or a 92% allocation — rather than a full 350,000 from Upper Klamath Lake to the Klamath Project this summer and fall...Longtime legal counsel for KWUA Paul Simmons...was selected as executive director of the association..." KBC NOTE: an irrigator contacted and told us: "It is really less than honest to say the Project is getting 92% of their deliveries this year. If you go back to their original allotment, this year they are only actually getting around 69. All of our water, both upper and lower basin, continues to be "re-allocated."

 

Irrigation season begins for Klamath Project, followed by Reclamation transitions to modified water operation plan, H&N 4/4/19. "Snowpack as of Tuesday afternoon is up to about 129 percent of average for the Klamath Project, with precipitation resting at 98 percent. Nettleton told irrigators late last month they could anticipate a projected 93 percent allocation, pending the release of the official number, which should be released later this week."

 

Klamath water year looks promising, H&N 3/21/19. Bureau of Reclamation PUBLIC MEETING March 22, Friday, 1-3 at Klamath County Fairgrounds on 2019 water year. (One whole day notice.)
Please take time to read through the
Draft Klamath Project Environmental Assessment. It details Project irrigators' new lower cap on surface water, additional groundwater needed to help but not make up for the decrease in surface water allowed, more fallowed land, more well pumping expense, worse economy and unemployment. Bird predation of baby suckers is one reason for keeping more water in lakes, but there have been no thorough studies of the bird predation caused by the 3 manmade islands to entice fish-eating terns to come into the Klamath Basin...terns that ate 20 million smolts annually in the Columbia Basin.
One irrigator's comments on the Bureau's devastating Draft Environmental Assessment, 3/19/19

 

COMMENT BY March 19! Reclamation requests comments on Klamath Project draft environmental assessment 3/5/19

COMMENT BY March 19! Reclamation requests comments on Klamath Project environmental assessment, 3/5/19.  (KBC Note: this proposed EA lowers the cap on water deliveries to the Klamath Project, increases lake levels, projects more groundwater pumping, more unemployment, worse local economy, more seasons of insufficient water for Project. It's important to read this. It's a little over 100 pages. The Herald and News notice gave not nearly enough time to comprehend the document and make comments.)
 

BOR updates KID on water operations, H&N 2/17/19
BOR map of current Klamath Basin water storage 02/17/19


BOR names new Mid-Pacific Region director, Conant to oversee Klamath along with California and Nevada projects, H&N 1/22/19.

Reclamation finalizes Klamath Project Biological Assessment, BOR Press Release 1/2/19
BOR releases Klamath Project Biological Assessment, H&N 1/3/19. "It’s analyzing, assessing, the impacts of the Klamath Project operation on all these (endangered) species...The services are going to use this Biological Assessment that we did … to create the bi-Op...We’re allowing the public to view it but there’s no comment period..."
The 2018 assessment and its appendices are available at www.usbr.gov/mp/kbao
Reclamation's guiding water document, Biological Assessment, released, H&N 12/23/18


Deputy Reclamation commissioner tours Klamath Basin, H&N 11/29/18.

 

Klamath Tribes drop ESA lawsuit against BOR. Merkley to hold PRIVATE Sucker Recovery Summit November 16 in Klamath Falls, H&N 11/9/18.

 

BOR Press Release 9/18/18: COMMENTS DUE September 25! Reclamation releases draft environmental document for Cold Creek Coho Passage and Screening Project. 43 page Draft Environmental Assessment Cold Creek Coho Salmon Passage and Screening Project. “The project would be funded in the amount $116,054.77 by the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and administered through National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to Trout Unlimited (TU) as part of the 2016 Klamath River Coho Habitat Restoration Grant Program (Grant Program).” More on TU and Klamath HERE
 

Water, federal aid enroute to Klamath Project, H&N 6/3/18. "The Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Basin Area Office said that there is roughly 55,000 to 56,000 acre feet available to the Klamath Project during June, with a total of about 195,000 to 200,000 acre feet anticipated for the summer irrigation season..."

 

PRESS RELEASE: Reclamation begins emergency dilution flows early Monday (May 7) in Klamath River; Water releases from Iron Gate Dam will continue through May 21; public urged to take safety precautions 5/7/18. "The emergency dilution flows will utilize approximately 50,000 acre-feet of water from Upper Klamath Lake..."
 

$10.3 million in drought relief OK'd, H&N 5/4/18. "The top-level approval frees up the funds for the Bureau of Reclamation to issue a proposal to distribute the money to on-Project irrigators, Walden said. A proposal from Reclamation could be released as early as Friday or on Monday at the latest... The money is slated to fund pumping, land idling, and disaster relief."

 

Walden to speed up relief for on-Project irrigators, H&N 5/2/18. "Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Basin Area Office Manager Jeff Nettleton also addressed the order issued by Orrick, with intentions to appeal it."

 

Project water delivery discussed following judge's decision. Walden, BOR to address irrigators today, H&N 5/2/18. "A tentative time frame for Klamath Project water delivery of somewhere between June 1 and 15 was announced Tuesday by the Bureau of Reclamation...Part of BOR’s plan going forward, according to officials, is that the agency is considering asking for a total 14,500 acre feet of water from the Horsefly and Langell Valley irrigation districts. That amount, coupled with 10,500 acre feet borrowed from PacifiCorp reservoirs, could help irrigation districts make it through the month. 'They feel like that would cover KID (Klamath Irrigation District) and Tulelake Irrigation District through the month of May...' "


* Letter from engineer Stephen Koshy, regarding Klamath dams catastrophic collapse, to our KBC News readers 4/27/18.        
 

Hoopa Tribe questions BOR Plan, Feds eye scaling back antiparasite Klamath dam releases,  Eureka Times Standard, 3/26/18. "...The bureau wrote in its court filing that it also evaluated the option of releasing a smaller dilution flow, but that the questions about these flows effectiveness still existed. Including a smaller dilution flow would also cause a complete irrigation shutoff in the Klamath Project until as late as June 15, according to the bureau."
KBC NOTE: Obama-appointed District Judge William Orrick, who ruled against President Trump in the sanctuary city policy, and "ruled in favor of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, Yurok Tribe and environmental groups’s arguments in February 2017..." stated “courts are not permitted to favor economic interests over potential harm to endangered species.” He will hear this Klamath case April 11th, and could potentially determine the fate of the Klamath Basin irrigators.

 

BOR recommends reduced water allocation. Pending court action, no water start date guaranteed, H&N 3/27/18

 

BOR PRESS RELEASE: Reclamation Responds to Klamath Water Users’ Motion in District Court, Outlines Proposed 2018 Operations, 3/24/18. "Reclamation’s proposal includes implementing a full surface flushing flow, augmented with non-Project water; forgoing an emergency dilution flow; and providing Klamath Project irrigators with a supply of 252,000 acre-feet – 65 percent of a full project supply – with deliveries commencing on April 19 with charging of main canal networks."

 

KID threatens to file suit against BOR; District requiring BOR response by Wed, H&N 3/23/18. " '...by the Bureau not distributing water in accordance with water law as it exists, they're causing irreparable harm to every irrigator in the state,' Reitmann said."

 

BOR public meeting Tuesday 1 p.m. March 20; Water delivery start date not expected at BOR meeting Tuesday, H&N 3/16/18
 

COMMENTS DUE FEB 23 - Reclamation unveils water contracts program (for Klamath water transfer), H&N 2/11/18. "...Contracts would expire in 2022, according to BOR officials. The deadline for the submitting comments on the NEPA documents is Feb. 23.."

 

Klamath Falls - BOR's Mikkelsen talks drought survival, H&N 2/9/18. "...The focus of people in the Basin right now is surviving 2018...Long-term solutions are frankly a little bit on the back-burner right now...“There are a lot of urban congressmen, both parties, that do not have any desire to make substantive changes to the ESA. And so we have to follow the ESA and we will follow the ESA.”

 

New BOR director appointed, director to work with Family Farm Alliance, H&N 11/22/17. Burman served as BOR’s deputy commissioner for external and intergovernmental affairs and the deputy assistant secretary,  director of water policy for Arizona’s Salt River Project, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and worked for The Nature Conservancy and former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl. "Keppen, a Klamath Falls resident and friend of (Brenda) Burman’s, praised the appointment." (Keppen is Executive Director of Family Farm Alliance, former special U.S. BOR Assistant in Mid-Pacific Region, former Executive Director of Klamath Water Users Association, and in 2011 was hired by Klamath Water and Power Agency to take the lead in the On-Project plan, part of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.

 

Bureau of Reclamation Deputy Mikkelson  and KRRC on Dam Removal vs Siskiyou County, & Attorneys Buchal and Kogan, and Congressman LaMalfa at Siskiyou Water Users fund raiser Liz Writes Life, Siskiyou Daily News by Liz Bowen 10/17/17. "KRRC Vice President Lester Snow...said the decision to take down the dams is not pending, but had been made. (Hum, not by Siskiyou or Klamath Counties.)...Snow continued saying they are looking for alternative water supply for the Iron Gate Fish Hatchery and possibly even for the City of Yreka. Uh oh, they now acknowledge dam removal could affect Yreka’s city water supply? On flooding, he said their consultants have looked at the issues and long-term liability if KRRC disappears. So, KRRC is looking for liability insurance...(CA U.S. Congressman LaMalfa) was ripping angry at bureaucrat  Mikkelsen and asked us to write letters...to DOI Secretary Ryan Zinke asking him to save the four hydro-electric Klamath dams..."

BOR acting commissioner tours Basin; New biological opinion, future of water agreements considered, H&N  7/19/17

Reclamation cancels water surges on Klamath River, H&N 6/1/17.

Department of the Interior: Rejection of Nomination of Cong. Ryan Zinke as Interior Secretary, Western States Constitutional Rights, LLC, letter to Alaska U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, Chairwoman, Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, posted to KBC 2/4/17.  Many TOPICS INCLUDE: national forests and parks could be transferred into trust for tribes, tribes could exercise water rights based on aboriginal priority date to claim use over all waters flowing through "flowing through deemed 'Indian Forest Lands' at the expense of downstream farmers and ranchers (as is happening in Upper Klamath Basin)," Yurok Tribe lawsuit which would severely curtail Klamath Project and Off-Project irrigators exercise of their water rights, "Zinke has failed to guard America’s back-door against infiltration by lethal terrorists...unguarded 3,987-mile U.S.-Canada border that spans “sovereign” Indian reservations," "the Islamic Government of Turkey also sponsored eight additional tribes with reservations located within 100 miles of a nuclear power plant, a registered nuclear fuel facility or a registered uranium mine or deposit and also a water source,"  "...Council on American Islamic Relations (“CAIR”) located..." in same areas as many tribes.

Klamath River Salmon Draft EIS comments by Werner Hoyt, PE 11/8/16

BOR draft EIS Klamath Salmon Hearing 110916, *** Comments Due EXTENDED TO 12/12/16  since their website was not working for a few days. https://cdxnodengn.epa.gov/cdx-enepa-II/public/action/eis/details?eisId=219169 OR http://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_projdetails.cfm?Project_ID=22021

*Reclamation Releases Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Long-Term Plan to Protect Adult Salmon in the Lower Klamath River; Open House/Public Hearing Scheduled in Redding Nov. 9. COMMENTS DUE Dec. 5
The Draft EIS is available at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_projdetails.cfm?Project_ID=22021. If you encounter problems accessing the document, please call 916-978-5100 (TTY 800-877-8339) or email mppublicaffairs@usbr.gov. Please email comments by close of business Monday, Dec. 5, 2016, to BOR-SLO-sha-ltpeis-public-comments@usbr.gov or mail comments to Julia Long, Bureau of Reclamation, Northern California Area Office, 16349 Shasta Dam Blvd., Shasta Lake, CA 96019.

PRESS RELEASE - Jeffrey Nettleton Selected as the New Area Manager for the Klamath Basin Area Office in Klamath Falls, Oregon, BOR 9/18/16

Klamath BOR director (Therese O’Rourke Bradford) leaving, H&N 4/23/16

Letter from KID to Congressman Greg Walden requesting his presence at Bureau of Reclamation Meeting in Sacramento because of the Bureau's unachievable demands of KID, 4/19/16. "The KID’s signing of the BOR financing contract as-is, in other words, would leave the KID and its members saddled with substantial debt, entirely at the mercy of the BOR without legal recourse, and unable to control, let alone, purchase its Project transferred works...The second purpose of the forthcoming Sacramento meeting is to address the BOR’s ongoing failure to provide the KID with an annual accounting of its net Operations & Management ("O&M") expenditures... Ms. Bradford and Mr. Driscoll stated that they were unable to determine this amount...We found this statement, upon subsequent investigation, to be patently untrue....a 2014 U.S. General Accountability Office report reveals, the BOR has apparently failed to meet its legal obligation to determine, less provide, the required annual Statements of Project Construction Cost and Repayment ("SPCCR") setting forth each district’s respective share of the Project’s accumulated repayment obligation, since at least 2001 – the time of the infamous Bucket Brigade protest against the BOR’s shutoff of water to the Project....the absence of annual accountings renders the Project "transferred works" vulnerable to BOR take-back...Ms. Bradford and Mr. Driscoll also have so significantly inserted themselves into the KID’s business relationship with its C Canal Flume engineering contractor that they essentially dictated the engineering consultants’ recommendations for C Flume replacement and the previous KID Board’s and manager’s decisions to accept them."

Klamath Falls - Bureau of Reclamation makes offer irrigators can’t refuse, by KID attorney Lawrence Kogan for the Capital Press April 20, 2016

Reclamation Announces Increased Numbers of Lost River and Shortnose Sucker Fish in the Klamath Project, BOR 12/17/15. "Bureau of Reclamation biologists found the largest number of juvenile Lost River and shortnose sucker fish since fish salvage operations began on the Klamath Project...the late 1990s"

Reclamation Releases Scoping Report on Long-Term Plan for Protecting Late Summer Adult Salmon in the Lower Klamath River, BOR Press Release, posted to KBC 12/15/15.
Comments on Plan

BOR wins lawsuit over water transfer, H&N 8/22/15

Whistleblowers claim millions wasted in Klamath Project, Siskiyou Daily, followed by: Claim against Bureau of Reclamation gains traction as Interior Department probes drought funds’ use, H&N 7/2/15. "The U.S. Office of Special Counsel has opened an investigation into the expenditure of $48 million in taxpayer funds in the Upper Klamath Basin following a scathing whistleblower declaration. The controversy is centered on the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s interactions with the Klamath Water and Power Agency (KWAPA),  an inter-governmental agency formed in 2008 by representatives of California and Oregon drainage districts within the Klamath Project."

New BOR manager trades one complex post for another, H&N 6/21/15. "Before coming to Klamath Falls, O’Rourke Bradford (was) Regulatory Branch Chief for the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers...(worked for) U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy..."

Bureau makes call for water, shutoffs anticipated, H&N 6/17/15

Bureau of Reclamation News Release: Therese O’Rourke Bradford Selected as the New Area Manager for the Klamath Basin Area Office in Klamath Falls, Oregon, 4/23/15. Resume: "Regulatory Branch Chief for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service...U.S. Forest Service...Nature Conservancy...primary architect for the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan.."
Related Articles:
Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan..."
Coachella Valley ... Conservation Plan: "
The CVMSHCP is a regional conservation plan comprising of close to 1.14 million acres...Project Advisory Group (PAG) was created employing a diverse range of contributors including the CVWD, University of California, Sierra Club, Building Industry Association, Nature Conservancy, and many others."
Additional reading: Lessons from area-wide, multi-agency habitat conservation plans in California
California Essential Habitat Connectivity Project

BOR study to tackle climate change threats. Crop modification and river restoration among options, H&N 2/24/15. "Greg Addington, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, said any study will be incomplete unless it includes water needs for fish and wildlife...He pointed out that the Tribes should be part of any long-term water storage discussion." " Implementing strategies could improve delivery efficiency, reduce demand, reduce losses, and support water acquisition and transfers, and restoration projects, McGinnis said....Strategy examples include modifying crop use and acreage, increasing water storage, increasing streamflow, river restoration and implementing the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.

BOR accused of misusing water funds. Whistleblower claim lodged against BOR and Basin irrigators, H&N 2/20/15.

Bureau of Reclamation News Release: Therese O’Rourke Bradford Selected as the New Area Manager for the Klamath Basin Area Office in Klamath Falls, Oregon, 4/23/15. Resume: "Regulatory Branch Chief for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service...U.S. Forest Service...Nature Conservancy...primary architect for the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan.."
Related Articles:
Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan..."
Coachella Valley ... Conservation Plan: "
The CVMSHCP is a regional conservation plan comprising of close to 1.14 million acres...Project Advisory Group (PAG) was created employing a diverse range of contributors including the CVWD, University of California, Sierra Club, Building Industry Association, Nature Conservancy, and many others."
Additional reading: Lessons from area-wide, multi-agency habitat conservation plans in California
California Essential Habitat Connectivity Project

Obama seeks $18 million for Klamath Project. BOR pursues government financial support for new office, H&N 2/6/15.

Klamath salmon in danger; additional flows intended to prevent fish die-off, H&N, posted to KBC 9/21/14. "The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) began releasing additional flows from Trinity Reservoir via the Lewiston Dam Tuesday....We must, however, take all reasonable measures to prevent a recurrence of the fish losses experienced in 2002"  KBC NOTE: Water was shut off to Klamath Basin family farms the summer of 2001. After irrigation was restored to irrigators in later, tribes, U.S. Dept of Fish and Game, and environmental groups focused on obliterating farming in the Klamath Basin, blamed Klamath Farmers for fish dying in 2002, 170 miles downstream. Fish Scientist David Vogel (see #'s 19, 22, 23 and 29) explained why sending high flows of warm water from Iron Gate dam was lethal for salmon in the already warm river. According to a Scientist conference in Klamath Falls in 2004, effects of the 2002, 500,000-acre Biscuit Fire smoke were never studied in relation to fish dying that fall. Neither were considered effects of drainoff from drug labs on the Klamath River.

Additional water releases for Klamath River, H&N 8/23/14

Agency reconsidering water for Klamath salmon, H&N 8/16/14. "Tribal members were going to Sacramento on Tuesday to hold a vigil outside Bureau offices, she said. Since the 1960s, some water from the Trinity has been pumped over the mountains to the Central Valley of California for irrigation. Sierztutowski said some of those irrigation districts have been denied water this year due to the drought."

BOR, PacifiCorp reach agreement on reservoir releases  H&N, posted to KBC 8/16/14. "According to KWAPA Executive Director Hollie Cannon, the combination of consecutive drought years and new rules in place to protect endangered fish in the Klamath watershed means irrigators are given less surface water, forcing them to turn to groundwater..."

Bureau of Reclamation Press Release includes $18 million in Klamath Project 3/4/14

BOR works with local irrigators; Phillips remains in charge of the local project; interim managers share duties, H&N 2/8/14. "Right now the projections are if the weather (precipitation) doesn’t turn to be above average for the rest of the year, it will likely be the driest year in recorded history...”

PRESS RELEASE: Reclamation Announces the Selection of (Klamath Falls Area Manager) Jason Phillips as Deputy Regional Director for the Mid-Pacific Region, BOR 10/30/13

Bureau of Reclamation Press Release: Reclamation to Increase Releases from Lewiston Dam to the Trinity River for Tribal Ceremony and Lower Klamath Flow Augmentation, 8/23/13. SEE TRINITY PAGE

BOR to award tribal members drought funds, Relief program offers those with 1864 water rights $250 per acre,
followed by
:
Reclamation says no to (Klamath) tribal drought relief, appropriated funds will not be paid out this year, H&N 8/8/13

Reclamation biologists to keep jobs, H&N, posted to KBC 5/4/13. ".. Murillo wrote that Phillips’ memo will be rescinded with an apology..."
See detailed allegations below from biologists.

Klamath Falls - Biologists, Reclamation clash over jobs, H&N, posted to KBC 2/25/13. "The complaint focuses on two scientific issues: (1) the discovery of greater-than-anticipated numbers of endangered sucker in Lake Ewauna, and (2) a life-cycle model of threatened coho salmon, with preliminary results indicating that tributary flows are more important than the main Klamath River, whose flows are managed by Reclamation."

Interior secretary leaving post, Ken Salazar stepping down in March, H&N, posted to KBC 2/4/13. “ 'We had high hopes for (Salazar), with his (agriculture) background, but that didn’t happen . He decided to turn away from the citizens and toward environmental organizations,' Mallams said....Lucero said everything will continue to move forward, including the KBRA. The Interior department has funded studies related to the KBRA and the agreement stipulates the secretary of the interior is to determine whether removal of the Klamath River dams is feasible and in the public interest. Salazar was waiting for congressional approval before making a final determination." KBC NOTE: According to Klamath whistleblower and Federal Ethics Officer Dr. Paul Houser, Interior has already determined that the Klamath hydroelectric dams are to be destroyed, Houser was fired when he brought up concerns over the "science" hired by Interior, so he was fired. When 7 Klamath fisheries scientists presented science conflicting with Interiors, they were also terminated.

Salazar06_24_10

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to resign, Fox News 1/16/13. "His departure marks the latest in a series of high-profile resignations from the president's Cabinet. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta are among those leaving." KBC NOTE: 8 scientists, including the top ethics scientist/whistleblower for Bureau of Reclamation, recently filed complaints against Interior for science misconduct. Will this resignation make no one accountable?

* Klamath Basin Area Office of Bureau of Reclamation quit participation in fisheries studies because "tribes, other agencies and interest groups" didn't like BOR studies because it contradicts theirs, BOR Memorandum, posted to KBC 12/5/12

* Press Release: Bureau of Reclamation Klamath Project 2012 Operations Plan Released, posted to KBC 4/7/12.
*
Bureau of Reclamation 2012 Klamath Project Operations Plan, posted 4/7/12.
* Bureau of Reclamation 2012 Klamath Project Drought Plan, posted 4/7/12.
* Here is the proposed KBRA Draft Drought Plan:  "This Draft Drought Plan has been developed by the Drought Plan Lead Entity identified in the Restoration Agreement. The Lead Entity is comprised of: Klamath Tribes, Karuk Tribe, Yurok Tribe, Upper Klamath Water Users Association, the Klamath Water and Power Agency, the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges, Oregon Water Resources Department, California Department of Fish and Game, and Trout Unlimited, as the representative of the conservation and non-tribal fishing Parties to the Restoration Agreement."
* "Klamath Drought Fund (Fund), to be administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)...As contemplated by the Restoration Agreement, money deposited in the Fund will remain available until expended... NFWF will approve or disapprove an expenditure plan..." "...after NFWF becomes a party to the Restoration Agreement..."
* KBC Note: NFWF is funded by Heinz Family Foundation, HWBuckner Charitable Trust, Howard Heinz Endowment, Surdna Foundation, Bullitt Foundation. Please follow the links: they support Zero Population, Wildlands Project, Earthjustice (attorneys for the environmental groups in the KBRA), Tides, Nature Conservancy, Wilderness Society, Greenpeace, Climate Trust, Ecotrust, Endangered Species Coalition,  many dozens more...

Bureau: Only some irrigators get water, Just one-third of (Klamath) Project likely to have water this year, H&N 3/14/12

Bureau of Reclamation builds water reserves for Klamath Basin irrigators, KDRV News, posted to KBC 1/12/11

New leader at the (Klamath) BOR — again; Jason Phillips agency’s fourth new manager in eight years, H&N 11/23/10

Klamath Falls - Reclamation office gets new manager, H&N 11/9/10

Letter from Bureau of Reclamation Susan Fry to Ron Cole, Fish and Wildlife Tulelake Refuge Manager, regarding FWS takeover of leaseland management, posted 7/23/10. "Ron,  I understand you held a meeting with Lease Land growers on July 14th and announced that FWS had “fired the Bureau” and would be taking over the lease land program.  Since I have not heard from you regarding the lease land program since April/May, I am surprised to hear of this announcement..."

(Klamath Project) water releases begin, H&N 5/13/10

(Klamath Project) Water deliveries to begin no earlier than May 15, H&N 5/11/10

***Bureau of Reclamation 2010 Klamath Project Operation Plan 5/6/10

August 2009 - $7 Million Klamath BLACKMAIL by Reclamation: Did you know the the Bureau of Reclamation has billed the Klamath Project Water Users irrigation districts $7 million, for, something? There is no account of where the Bureau spent the money but they claim the  irrigation districts owe them.   Unless----the districts lobby their representatives and change the purpose of the Klamath Project. Presently the sole purpose is irrigation. The former 30-foot-deep lake was rerouted into canals, evaporation reservoirs, and the Klamath River to provide fertile farmland;  The feds and enviros want it to include fish and wildlife. Coincidently, the KBRA/Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement changes the purpose of the Project to include fish and wildlife. And you and I, just peasant farmers, have no vote and no voice at the elite KBRA closed-door meetings bartering dams, land, water, water rights, aquifer control, farms and communities.

Walking Wetland Controversy, and Bureau of Reclamation blackmail Issues, by KBC reporter July 19, 2009

Water storage appraisal nearly done, H&N 7/2/09 (The Klamath settlement agreement' demands most of the potential stored water from Long Lake to be sent to the ocean rather than used for irrigation.)

PRESS RELEASE: Pablo Arroyave Appointed as Deputy Regional Director for Reclamation's Mid-Pacific Region, Bureau of Reclamation 5/9/09

***2009 Klamath Project Operations Plan

PRESS RELEASE: Reclamation Announces Start Date for Klamath Project Water Deliveries, Bureau of Reclamation, posted to KBC 4/5/09

Obama Announces Nomination For New Bureau Of Reclamation Commissioner, CBB, posted 3/21/09. "Connor served in the Department of the Interior, including as deputy director and then director of the Secretary's Indian Water Rights Office"

The Bureau of Reclamation told us, "The 2009 Operations Plan will not be released until after April 1st. We wait until we receive the April 1st forecast before it's finalized."

* NEWS RELEASE: Reclamation Announces Delayed Water Deliveries for Klamath Project, 3/10/09. "The current lake level and lower than average estimated inflow may potentially delay the start of operations to mid-April with deliveries in late April."

Bureau of Reclamation Tulelake leaseland bid winners, posted to KBC 3/10/09

PRESS RELEASE: Susan Fry Selected as Area Manager for Reclamation's Klamath Basin Area Office, BOR 11/19/08

(Klamath) Bureau head to leave. H&N, posted to KBC 8/27/08

Klamath BOR manager changing jobs, H&N, posted to KBC 8/4/08

Bureau of Reclamation funding......posted to KBC 7/24/08

Note by Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Bob Johnson regarding death of former Commissioner John Keyes III, 6/2/08

Plane crash in park claims 2 (former Bureau Commissioner Keyes), Salt Lake Tribune, posted 6/1/08

Donald R. Glaser named Mid-Pacific Regional Director for the Bureau of Reclamation, Commissioner’s Office, Washington, D.C.5/2/08

8/15/06: Senator Doug Whitsett, Oregon District 28, asked these questions to the Bureau of Reclamation and the US Fish and Wildlife regarding Barnes Ranch acquisition.  
10/9/07: Upon request of the "final" answers, today Cecil Leslie from the Bureau of Reclamation sent these to KBC stating, "Attached are our responses to Senator Whitsett's questions; the Draft answers are our final answers."   HERE for more on Barnes Ranch and other "irrigation storage" letters, scams, science.

From Cecil Leslie, Bureau of Reclamation regarding Barnes Ranch questions from OR Senator Whitsett, "We had a meeting with Senator Whitsett and the Water Users in September of 2006 to go over the questions on your web page.  We answered all of the questions at that time.  No further response is forthcoming, and you can remove the questions from your web page."
However, "Senator Whitsett has not received anything other than a draft report regarding the Barnes property as of September 1, 2007" according to his staff. In fall 2006 we and Whitsett were told by the Bureau that the final answers would be coming soon.

Bureau of Reclamation information on 2007 funding for the Klamath River Watershed Restoration Program. HERE for grant details. 5/23/07

CIP / Conservation Implementation Program

6/19/07: In September 2004 the Bureau of Reclamation disclosed their intentions for a CIP, Conservation Implementation Program. "The purpose of the CIP is to (1) largely restore the Klamath River ecosystem to achieve recovery of the Lost River and Shortnose suckers and substantially contribute to the recovery of Coho salmon, (2) contribute to the Tribal Trust responsibilities of the Federal government, and (3) allow continued, sustainable operation of existing water management facilities and future water resource improvements for human use in the Klamath Basin."
    (KBC Note:
We are now June 2007. Public CIP planning meetings have not happened with the public. CIP money has been spent funding Dr. Thomas Hardy who, contracted by the BIA, created science for our biological opinions, The Nature Conservancy projects, Karuk and Yurok studies, and more.
HERE is todays PRESS RELEASE on the CIP today from the Bureau of Reclamation. For proposed CIP structure go HERE. Request for funding for grants was May 1 - June 29, 2007; we irrigators heard about it today. Irrigators were told that the Bureau would hold a series of public meetings to create the working structure, however this press release states that the Bureau designed the structure and will meet with the governors to tell them how the proposed structure works.)
For Bureau's CIP draft #3, go HERE
For Bureau's CIP draft #2 plan, go HERE

Bureau of Reclamation public meeting, Managing for Excellence, May 30-31

Water obligations will be met, Reclamation expects to make full deliveries to irrigators, H&N posted to KBC 4/14/07

* Notes of Pablo R. Arroyave, Bureau of Reclamation Klamath Office, for KWUA annual meeting, posted to KBC 2/22/07

Reclamation Proposes New Grounds to Fire E-Mailing Biologist, posted 1/16/07. (KBC Note: here is an interesting scenario that has nothing to do with Klamath.  Rex Wahl was executive director of Forest Guardians, a radical environmentalist group in NM that has unconditionally opposed logging. Then the Bureau of Reclamation made him a GS-12 Environmental Specialist earning between $55,000 and &72,000 pay plus benefits.)

BOR UKL fish screen comments 11/30

* Finalize CIP Dec 6-7, POSTPONED

PRESS RELEASE: Postponed – Working Session on the Organizational Structure for the Klamath River Basin Conservation Implementation Program, Bureau of Reclamation, posted to KBC 11/28/06

Reclamation boss balances issues, H&N, posted 11/9/06

Final work on Reclamation Klamath Plan in December, Capital Press, 10/27/06

10/5/06: The Conservation Implementation Program (CIP) working session to finalize the organizational structure and first-year goals will be held on December 6-7, 2006

Bureau of Reclamation selects management of CIP, by BOR 8/29/06 "The CIP is a stakeholder-driven restoration program with the following four goals:  ecosystem restoration, maintaining sustainable water use while reducing demand, contributing to Tribal Trust responsibilities of the Federal government, and fostering partnerships between governments and private interest in the Klamath Basin."

Managing for excellence, Participant Comments Reclamation Meeting on Managing for Excellence, posted to KBC 7/31/06

Bureau: Aquifer use necessary, H&N, posted to KBC 7/22/06
County questions water use, Commissioners object to aquifer irrigation in a good water year, H&N, posted to KBC 7/22/06
Waterbank Page (KBC note: Our aquifer is being depleted by 5' per year according to OWRD. Yet the BIA paid for science by Dr Hardy which forces irrigators to pump the aquifer to artificially elevate Klamath River flows. So irrigators are told to pump the aquifer or shut down the Klamath Project, which is storage paid for by irrigators. This is a flood year yet we still are required to deplete our aquifer.)

PRESS RELEASE: Bureau of Reclamation Area Manager Appointed for Klamath Basin Office, 7/6/06.

Bureau of Reclamation Water Data Update – June 14, 2006

Bureau to stabilize lake levels, H&N 6/13/06. HERE for more on waterbank.

Weather report and flows and letter from Christine Karas, Acting Manager of the Klamath Area Office of the Bureau of Reclamation, 4/10/06. Thank you Barb Hall, KBB.

Bids accepted for lease lands, H&N 3/6/06

PRESS RELEASE:  Bureau of Reclamation, Bid Opening Announced for Klamath Project Lease Lands 3/3/06

PRESS RELEASE: Bureau of Reclamation and USGS Budget Review, House Committee on Resources 3/1/06

Dave Sabo, by Dan Keppen 2/27/06.
Bye Dave! Being thrown in between the Cowboys and Indians and enviros and government agencies, trying to please all, certainly was a tough spot. May God guide you to peaceful waters. KBC
PRESS RELEASE: Klamath Project’s Sabo Moving to Upper Colorado Region, Bureau of Reclamation 2/21/06

PRESS RELEASE: Reclamation's Mid-Pacific Region  regarding Conservation Implementation Program Draft 3. February 9, 2006
Bureau of Reclamation's Klamath River Basin Conservation Implementation Program Draft 3, February 9, 2006, pdf file

BOR question and answer page: Questions by irrigators and districts, and answers by Bureau of Reclamation

PRESS RELEASE: Klamath Project’s Sabo Moving to Upper Colorado Region, Bureau of Reclamation 2/21/06

PRESS RELEASE: President seeks more than $2 billion for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2007 budget, posted to KBC 2/7/06 "This total includes a requested increase of $2.0 million for restoration work in the Klamath Basin"

PRESS RELEASE: Reclamation's FY 2007 budget request is $971.6 million, posted to KBC 2/7/06 "$24.8 million for the Klamath Project to increase studies and initiatives related to improving water supplies to meet irrigation, wildlife refuges, and Tribal trust obligations; continue a water bank; and coordinate Reclamation's Conservation Implementation Program"

Answers from Bureau of Reclamation to questions by irrigators and districts January 27, 2006, regarding irrigation district issues with the Bureau, farmer issues with the Bureau, Bureau staff, CIP status and 2006 plans, CIP expenditures, Dr. Hardy payment from Bureau, Bureau emergency phone numbers, Chadwick expenditures, National Academy of Science review of Natural Flow Study, Long Lake water storage study, Clear Lake Dam, 2006 water bank plans, Barnes Ranch federal acquisition, and water bank monitoring issues.
Thank you BOR for your prompt attention to these questions and concerns.

Statement by Reclamation Commissioner John Keys on Plans to Address National Academy of Science Report, "Managing Construction and Infrastructure in the 21st Century Bureau of Reclamation", posted to KBC 1/11/06.

Question from irrigators and answers from the Bureau of Reclamation regarding CIP, Barnes Ranch, and the Chadwick process, received from BOR 9/29/05.

WARNING!   BOR!  WARNING! Klamath  Courier, posted to KBC 12/29/05

PRESS RELEASE: Keyes announces Reclamation Reorganization, posted to KBC 12/27/05

* Bureau of Reclamation Final Natural Flow study of the Upper Klamath River, posted to KBC 12/15/05 - pdf file, 115 pages.
* Appendices, 161 pages of appendices, to the Undepleted Flow study, pdf.

* Rae Olson, Bureau of Reclamation Public Affairs Officer, describes the Bureau's Natural Flow Study, written for KBC 12/19/05

WARNING! BOR releases Undepleted Natural Flow Study, Be Afraid! Be Very Very Afraid, by Pat Ratliff, Klamath Courier, posted to KBC 12/18/05. 

Exhaustive Inventory Includes Hundreds of Western Projects; The Bureau of  Reclamation Sends Storage Study to Congress, FFA 11/11/05
Inventory of Reclamation Water Surface Storage Studies with Hydropower Components; Report to Congress Implementing Provisions of Section 1840 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-58) 11/11/05 PDF

PRESS RELEASE:  David J. McCarthy Named as Reclamation’s Deputy Commissioner for External and Intergovernmental Affairs, 11/2/05 Bureau of Reclamation.

Energy bill directs BOR to develop storage report posted 7/31/05 sent from Family Farm Alliance

Irrigation districts describe dealings with BuRec, Capital Press posted to KBC 7/30/05

Family Farm Alliance Report by Dan Keppen Regarding the Bureau of Reclamation's capability to fulfill its core mission posted to KBC 7/11/05

Klamath Water Users' final letter to the Bureau of Reclamation regarding the Klamath River Basin Conservation Implementation Program, 1/17/05.

Tulelake Growers Association comments on the Bureau's CIP program posted to KBC 1/20/05. For more on Tulelake Growers Association, go HERE.

Let's Cut the BS by Pat Ratliff, Klamath Courier posted to KBC 11/4/04. "At the CIP meeting in Chiloquin Oct. 21, Curt Mullis, Manager of the Klamath Falls Fish and Wildlife office said he didn't think we would ever know how many fish are in Klamath Lake, and decisions would have to be made based on restoration of habitat and advancing age class .... I am dumbfounded AND angry AND offended....How can you work toward an objective if you have no information about that objective?"

Bureau takes new program for test drive, H&N 10/22/04.

Hands across the basin, and States' presence key part of water process, H&N posted to KBC 10/19/04--an article and editorial regarding the signing of the recent Klamath River Watershed Coordination Agreement.

BOR CIP Klamath Falls Oct 22 6-9pm 2004

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