[env-trinity] Fw: Press Advisory - Deficit Irrigation comes to the Klamath River Basin

[Tom Stokely]

On Tuesday, August 19, 2014 5:01 PM, Felice Pace <unofelice at gmail.com> wrote:






KlamBlogMedia Advisory
Felice
Pace, editor
www.klamblog.blogspot.com
28MapleRd.Klamath,CA95548707-9546588unofelice at gmail.com
Deficit
Irrigation Comes To The Klamath River Basin
Salmon
will pay the price
An article which
first appeared in HydroWorld.Com (an on-line newsletter which bills itself as "the Hydro
Industry's Proven Authority") announces that PacifiCorp,
operator of hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River, has agreed to a
request from the US Bureau of Reclamation to draw down its reservoirs
in order to meet Klamath River flows required to prevent "jeopardy"
to Coho salmon. The article mirrors Reclamation's press
release on the subject which also claims that the US Fish and
Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service support the
arrangement.
If you penetrate
Reclamation's hype, you'll realize that the agency is doing this in
order to maximize the amount of water it supplies to irrigators.
Those federal, Klamath Project irrigators are getting over 75% of the
irrigation water they desire this year and many irrigators are getting full water delivery; that may be the highest percentage of irrigation water delivered this drought year anywhere
in the West!

At the same time Reclamation
refuses to put more water down the Klamath River to prevent a
fish kill. Worst of all, this draw-down to maximize irrigation water
delivery will foreclose the option of releasing additional flows from
Iron Gate Dam to prevent a fish kill during this fall's salmon run.
Furthermore,  under the agreement between PacifiCorp and Reclamation,
Reclamation will have to pay back the water to PacifiCorp in the
future - presumably next winter. That water will come from high
flushing flows which the River needs in winter to combat algae and
fish diseases. 

Once again the US Bureau of Reclamation has
demonstrated that it is willing to screw salmon in order to
provide as much water as possible for irrigation. Worst of all, Cal
Trout is supporting this travesty.  
​Fish kill conditions in the Lower Trinity River, a main Klamath River tributary(photo courtesy of Hoopa Tribe)

This move parallels
a decision made last Fall a bit south of the Klamath River.  Back
then Reclamation drew down Shasta and other Central Valley Project
reservoirs in order to maximize water delivery to irrigation
interests. That decision has been roundly criticized this year as
being foolhardy and irresponsible. 

Reclamation has had to pay for
last fall's decision by cutting water deliveries and flows for salmon
in the Sacramento River this year. The same scenario could play out
on the Klamath next year if the drought continues. Practicing deficit
irrigation is risky business and most of the risk falls on salmon
and river ecosystems generally.
Reporters may want
to ask Reclamation whether the PacifiCorp draw-down forecloses options
for releasing water to prevent a Klamath salmon kill. You might also
ask Reclamation officials and Sally Jewel what will happen in the
Klamath River Basin if the drought continues next year even as it is
required to pay back the water released by PacifiCorp this year. Ask
them what will get cut if inflow to Upper Klamath Lake (the main
storage for the Klamath Irrigation Project) next year is the same or
lower than inflow has been this year.  
And
while you are at it, please ask Reclamation how much water they have
supplied to the Klamath's National Wildlife Refuges this summer and
how much they will supply this fall when up to 80% of Pacific Flyway
birds migrate through the Klamath River Basin. Many of the
waterfowl which rely on the Klamath Refuges during migration are
subsistence resources for tribes from Washington to Alaska and
beyond. Like the Klamath's salmon tribes, those tribes are impacted
when Reclamation prioritizes maximum irrigation delivery over
environmental needs.  

​Dewatered Klamath Refuge Marsh


-- 
Felice Pace
Klamath, CA 95548
707-954-6588 

"we must always seek the truth in our opponents' error and the error in our own truth."

                                                                                               - Reinhold Niebuhr
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