[env-trinity] Times Standard, Klamath Conundrum

[Tom Stokely]

This article is a little stale, but the information is still relevant. 

TS

http://www.times-standard.com/cda/article/print/0,1674,127%257E2896%257E2370796,00.html


Klamath's conundrum 
By John Driscoll The Times-Standard 

Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - 

EUREKA -- Calls for leadership and cooperation were mixed with a sense of desperation from 
fishermen and tribes at a hearing on the Klamath River basin's ecological maze of pitfalls and 
politics. 

More than 100 people pressed into the City Council chambers here on Monday to hear from 
regulators, tribes, irrigators and fishermen. Led by Rep. Mike Thompson, most speakers agreed 
that diverse interests need to work together to restore the Klamath basin on a large scale. 

"I'm one who believes it's been piecemeal at best," the St. Helena Democrat said. 

The hearing comes as the federal government is releasing billions of gallons of water purchased 
from Central Valley water users down the Trinity River. The releases are meant to cool and raise 
the lower Klamath River, where the specter of a massive fish kill like that in 2002 still looms. 

For now, conditions on the river have improved. But fishermen are still worried that the offspring 
of the 2002 fish kill may not be numerous enough to allow fishing next year. 

When federal fisheries managers laid out studies being done to determine the effects of the 
increased flows, Thompson grew frustrated, asking how the effort might be sped up. 

He said restoration projects on Klamath tributaries won't do much unless there is water in the 
river. Thompson likened it to paving the side streets while neglecting the highway. 

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Project Manager Dave Sabo said there must be a reduction in 
demands on the system from all sides, especially as precipitation appears to be dropping off and 
average temperatures are rising in the basin. 

Throughout the meeting, nearly every interest voiced disappointment in Reclamation's water 
bank, used to boost flows to fish downstream. This year, more than 80,000 acre feet has been 
released -- water bought for $5.5 million from irrigators in the Klamath Irrigation Project. 

The project will use a total of about 240,000 acre feet this year. Next year, Reclamation will try to 
buy 100,000 acre feet for $7.5 million. 

"We hate the water bank," said Klamath Water Users Association Executive Director Dan Keppen, 
"but it was sold to us as a temporary solution." 

The basin runs from the Sprague and Williamson rivers in Oregon, into the warm, shallow Upper 
Klamath Lake, down through a series of dams and to the sea at Klamath. It also picks up water 
from the Scott and Shasta rivers, and its main tributary the Trinity River -- tapped by Central 
Valley water and power users -- and its water supplies refuges for waterfowl on both sides of the 
central Oregon-California border. 

Not considered in plans regulating the Klamath Irrigation Project are chinook salmon, lamprey or 
sturgeon valuable to several downstream Indian tribes. Troy Fletcher, executive director of the 
Yurok Tribe, said the federal government has shirked its responsibilities and refuses to seek a 
permanent reduction in demand from the project. 

"It's the goal of the federal government to operate this project as the status quo," Fletcher said. 

The tribe will go to court in September to attempt to prove Reclamation's operations were behind 
the deaths of up to 68,000 chinook salmon in 2002. 

Commercial fishermen were also critical of the government's actions on the river. Eureka 
fisherman Dave Bitts said he's highly concerned that the fish kill, and a juvenile fish kill that 
claimed perhaps 200,000 fry that same year, could shut down salmon fishing from the Columbia 
River to Monterey. He said fishermen would seek federal compensation if it happens. 

He also addressed Sabo's calls for compromise, saying there was no more room to give on the 
fishing industry's side. Heavy restrictions on fishing for Klamath fish have reduced the industry by 
80 percent in recent decades, he said. 

Zeke Grader of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations advocated reducing 
agricultural demand for water, removing some of the river's dams, and restoring the Scott and 
Shasta rivers. 

"This isn't rocket science," Grader said. "What we really need is leadership to do it." 

Klamath County, Ore., Commissioner John Elliot raised the idea of creating more storage to give 
the project flexibility by storing up to 500,000 acre feet of water in the upper basin. 

Environmentalists at the meeting raised concerns about federal timber sales in the watershed that 
they claimed would further harm salmon by silting in streams. 

Toward the end of the meeting, Thompson asked Keppen to bring together irrigators and elected 
representatives to collaborate with other interests in the basin. 

Keppen said the constant stream of litigation and press releases hasn't been helping anyone, and 
Thompson agreed. He looked back on 2002, when he delivered dead fish to the door of the U.S. 
Interior Department. 

"I hope I never have to bring 500 pounds of dead salmon to Washington again," Thompson said. 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20040908/3fa54f85/attachment.html>