[env-trinity] Hoopa Valley Tribe oppose upper Klamath Basin Agreement because of its linkages to KBRA, and its degradation of Tribal water rights

[Thomas P. Schlosser]

Hello,

Attached please find the Hoopa Valley Tribe's statement.

Best,

Tom Schlosser
Hoopa Valley Tribe attorney
206 386 5200

Hoopa Valley Tribe
Press Release

For immediate release:   April 18, 2014

Contacts:
Danielle Vigil-Masten, Chairwoman,  Hoopa Valley Tribe 530 784-8118
Ryan Jackson, Vice Chairman, Hoopa Valley Tribe  530 249-8653
Mike Orcutt, Fisheries Director, Hoopa Valley Tribe, 707 499-6143

Hoopa Valley Tribe oppose upper Klamath Basin Agreement because of its 
linkages to KBRA and its degradation of Tribal water rights

Hoopa, Ca. The Hoopa Valley Tribe opposes the Upper Klamath Basin Water 
Agreement (Agreement) because the Agreement threatens the long term 
survival of  Klamath-Trinity  River salmon fishery that the United 
States holds in trust for our Tribe under federal law. Here’s why:

1) In 2010, the Secretary of the Interior and California’s and Oregon’s 
governors held a signing ceremony for the Klamath Basin Restoration 
Agreement (KBRA) and the Klamath Hydro Settlement Agreement (KHSA). 
Those agreements call for $1 billion infusion of federal funds and have 
not been approved by Congress. Our Tribe objected to those agreements 
because they would damage our water and fishing rights. We will continue 
to oppose them until our rights are protected.

2) As a result of ongoing adverse water management policies and drought 
conditions California’s Klamath River salmon fishery faces critically 
low water supplies and severely degraded water quality for the third 
year in a row.

3) In the twelve years since the 2002 Lower Klamath River adult salmon 
die off--the worst ever recorded--the Departments of the Interior and 
Commerce have used Trinity River water to offset chronically low flow 
conditions on the lower Klamath River caused by water withdrawals in Oregon.

4) The Department of the Interior agreed to develop a long term Lower 
Klamath flow management plan in 2013. The Agreement does not account for 
the Department’s commitment to a long term flow plan. Instead, the 
Agreement reallocates 30,000 acre-feet of Upper Basin Klamath water 
among claimants in Oregon under terms that virtually assures that none 
of the water will reach the Klamath River in California.

5) The Department, along with our Tribe, the Yurok Tribe, and the 
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, are in litigation 
with CVP contractors who dispute the usage of Trinity River water to 
compensate for lower Klamath River flows.

6) Representatives of the States of California and Oregon are pressing 
legislative agendas in the U.S. Congress (S. 2016, S. 2198, H.R. 3964, 
H.R. 4039, H.R. 4239) that have no regard for the laws that support the 
Klamath River basin’s tribal, sport and commercial salmon fishery in 
California.








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